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<(>■ 



AN ADVANCED HISTOEY OF 
GEEAT BEITAIN 



An Elementary History of England 

With 88 IllnMrations, Tables, Maps, and Pkius. 

BY 

T. F. TOUT, M.A., 

Professor of Mediaeval and Modern History in the 

University of Manchester, Fellow of the British Academy, 

AND 

JAMES SULLIVAN, Ph.D., 

Principal of the Boys' High School, Brooklyn, 

New York. 



An Atlas of English History 

EDITED BY 

SAMUEL RAWSON GARDINEB, D.C.L., LL.D. 
With 66 Maps and 22 Playis of Battles, etc. 



LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO., NEW YORK. 



AN ADVANCED HISTORY 
OF GREAT BRITAIN 

FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO 1918 



WITH 63 MAPS AND PLANS 



Bv T R- TOUT, M.A., F.B.A. 

PfiOFESSOR OF HISTORY AND DIRECTOR OF ADVANCED STUDY 

IN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER 

FELLOW OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 



NEW IMPRESSION 
BEISSUE 



LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

FOURTH AVENUE AND 30th STREET, NEW YORK 

LONDON, COMBAT, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS 

1920 

All right* reserved 



/^L* 

'>%'>^ 



Publisher 

OCT 16 



/>.i-^. 



CONTENTS 



List of Bibliogeaphies 

List of Maps and Plans 

List of Genealogical, Tables 

Fable of Kings and Queens . 

List op the Chief Ministkies since 1689 

[ndex ..... 



Qp to 1068. 



BOOK I 

BRITAIN BEFORE THE NORMAN 
CONQUEST . . . . 



PAGE 

XXXVl 

xxxvii 

xxxix 

xl 

764-765 

767 



I-Sl 



[Jp to 55 B.C. 



Chapter I. 
Britain 



Prehistoric and Celtic 



? 330 B.C. 



The Palaeolithic Age 

The Neolithic Age . 

The Iberians 

The Celts . 

The Bronze and Iron Ages 

The Voyage of Pytheas 



55 B.C.-449 A.D. Chapter II. Roman Britain 



65-54 B.C. 

43-85 A.D. 

85-410. 

78-85, 



410. 
410-449. 



Julius Caesar's Invasions of Britain 

The Roman Conquest of Britain 

Roman Rule in Britain 

Julius Agricola 

The Two Roman Walls 

Roman divisions of Britain 

The garrison and the roads 

Roman Civilisation . 

The Romano-British Church 

Decay of the Roman Power 

The Barbarian Invasions 

End of the" Roman Power in Britain 

The Picts, Scots, and Saxons 

Permanent results of Roman Rule in Britain 



1-5 

I 
I 

2 

2-3 

3 

4-5 

6-15 

6-7 

7-9 

9-14 

9 
9-10 
10 
II 
II 
12 
12 
14 
14 
15 
15 



vn 



VIU 



CONTENTS 



DATE 

449-607. 



Chapter III. The English Conquest of 
Southern Britain . 

The Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles 

The beginnings of England 

The Jutish Settlements 

The Saxon Settlements 

The Anglian Settlements 

The fate of the Britons 

The Welsh . 

The beginnings of Scotland 

Conversion of the Picts and Scots . 

Why England became the strongest 



PAGE 



597-821. Chapter IV. The Early Overlordships 
and the Conversion of the Eng-lish to 
Christianity . 

The first steps toward English Unity 
The Heptarchy 
The first English Overlords 
The Celtic Church . 
Pope Gregory the Great 
597. The Landing of Augustine . 

The Conversion of Kent and Essex 
627. The Conversion of Edwin . 
627-685. The Northumbrian Overlordship . 

Aidan and the Scottish Mission 
626-655. Penda of Mercia 

Conversion of the rest of England . 

Dispute between the Roman and the Celtic 

Churches .... 

664. Synod of Whitby . . , 

668-690. The work of Theodore of Tarsus . 

716-821. The Overlordship of Mercia 



802-899. Chapter V. The West Saxon Overlord 
ship and the Danish Invasions . 



802-839. 
839-858. 
858-899. 



878. 
886. 



The rise of Wessex . 

The Beign of Egbert 

Beginnings of the Danish Invasions 

The Reign of Ethelwulf 

The Norse Migrations 

The Sons of Ethelwulf 

Settlements in England and the continent 

Wessex saved by Alfred 

Alfred and Guthr urn's Peace 

The Dane law . . 

West Saxon Supremacy under Alfred 

Alfred's Reforms 



CONTENTS 



IX 



899-9V8. Chapter VI. The Successors of Alfred 
and the Beginnings of the English 

Monarchy 50-56 

899-924. Edward the Elder, the first King of the English 50-51 

The sons of Edward the Elder . . . 51-52 

924-940. Athelstan . . . . . .51-52 

937. The Battle of Brunanburh . . . . 52 

940-946. Edmund the Magnificent . . , . 52 

946-955. Eeign of Edred ... . 52-53 

955-975. The Keigns of Edwy and Edgar . . . 53-54 

Archbishop Dunstan .... 53-56 

975-978. The Reign of Edward the Martyr . . . 55-56 



978-1042. Chapter VII. The Decline of the English 
Kingdom and the Danish Conquest 

978-1016. Reign of Ethelred, the Unready 
Renewal of Danish Invasions 
1002. The Massacre of St. Brice's Day . 
1013. The Invasion of Swegen 
1016, The Struggle of Cnut and Edmund Ironside 
1017-1035. Cnut, King of Denmark, Norway, and England 

The Great Earldoms 
1035-1042. Reigns of the Sons^of Cnut . 



57.61 

57-59 

57-58 
58 
58 
59 

59-60 
60 
6i 



1042-1066. Chapter VIII. The Reigns of Edward 
the Confessor and Harold 

1042. Accession of Edward the Confessor 

Normandy and the Normans 

The House of Godwin 

Harold, Earl of the West Saxons . 
1066. The Death of Edward the Confessor 

Harold made King . 

Harold defeats Harold Hardrada . 

Landing of William of Normandy . 

Battle of Hastings . 



62-72 

62 

63 
64-65 

65 
66 
66 
68 
69 
69 



449-1066. Chapter IX. English Life before the 
Norman Conquest . 

Agriculture and land tenure 

Thegns, Ceorls, and Theows 

Towns 

Houses 

Food and Drink 

Architecture . 

Laws . 

The Shires . 



73-81 

73 
74 
74 
75 
75 
76 
76 
77 



X 



CONTENTS 



Hundreds and Townships 
Law Courts . 
The King's Officers . 
Frithborh and Tithing 
The King 

The Witenagemot . 
The Church . 

Language and Literature . . . 

Books recommended for the further study of the 

Period ...... 



PAGE 

77 
77 
78 

79 
79 
79 
79 
80 

80-81 



BOOK II 
1066-1215. THE NORMAN AND ANGEVIN KINGS 82-158 
1066-1087. Chapter I. William I. the Conqueror . 82-93 



1066-1071. 
1071. 



1075. 
1079. 



1086. 
1086. 



The Norman Conquest 

Hereward subdued . 

The Establishment of Feudalism 

William and the Norman Barons 

The Palatine Earldoms 

The Forests . 

The Baronial Revolt 

Bevolt of Robert suppressed 

William and the English .' 

The Domesday Book 

The Oath at Salisbury 

The Normans and the Church 

William as overlord of Britain 

Foreign Policy of William . 



83 

84 
85 
86 

87 

87 

'^1 

88 

88-89 

89 

90 

90-92 

91-92 

93 



1087-1100. Chapter II. William II. Rufus 



1088. 
1095. 

1093. 



1092. 

1095. 
1100. 



The Sons of William the Conqueror 

Baronial Revolt 

Revolt of Robert Mowbray . 

Ranulf Flambard 

Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury 

William 11. and Anselm 

William 11., Scotland and Wales 

Conquest of Cumberland 

William 11. and Normandy 

The First Crusade . 

Death of Rufus 



94-101 

94-95 
95 
95 
96 

97 

97-99 

99 

99 

lOO-IOI 

100 

lOI 



1100-1135. Chapter III. Henry I. 

Early Measures of Henry i. 
Henry i. and the Normans 
1101. Robert's revolt 



102-110 

102-103 

103-104 
103 



CONTENTS 



XI 



DATE 

1102. 

1106. 

1103-1107. 



1120. 



1135. 



Fall of Robert of Belleme . 

Battle of Tinchebray 

Quarrel of Henry and Anselm 

Henry i. Scotland and Wales 

Henry and Louis vi. . . . . 

Roger of Salisbury and the Administrative System 

The Loss of the White Ship 

Normandy and Anjou 

Death of Henry i. . 



103 
104 
104-105 
106 
107 
107 
108 
108 
109 



1135-1154. Chapter IV. Stephen of Blois 



1135. 
1138. 



1141. 
1153. 
1154. 



Accession of Stephen 

Battle of the Standard 

Beginnings of Civil War 

The Rivalry of Stephen and Matilda 

Desolation of England 

Geofirey of Mandeville 

The Battle of Lincoln 

The Treaty of Wallingford . 

The Death of Stephen 



111-115 

III 
112 
112-113 
"3 
113 
114 
114 
115 
115 



1154-1189. Chapter V. Henry II. of Anjou . 

Character of Henry 11. . 

The Restoration of Order . 

Thomas Becket .... 
1164. The Constitutions of Clarendon and the quarrel of 

Henry and Becket 
1170. Murder of Becket .... 

Period of Amalgamation between Normans and 
English ..... 
1166. Henry's Reforms. The Assize of Clarendon 
1176. The Assize of Northampton 

The Grand Assize .... 
1181. The Assize of Arms .... 
1184. The Assize of Woodstock . 

Henry 11., Wales and Scotland 

The Norman Conquest of Ireland . 

The Angevin Empire 

Henry 11. and his family 
1159. The War of Toulouse 

The Wars of 1173 and 1174 

Henry's Foreign Alliances 

Rebellions of his Sons 
1189. Henry's Death .... 



116-130 

116 
116-117 
117-118 

1 19-120 
120-121 

122 
123 
123 
123 
124 
124 
124-125 

125 
126 
127 
127 
127-129 
129 
129 
130 



1189-1199. Chapter VI. Richard I. Coeur de Lion 131-136 



Character of Richard i. 
1189. Richard and the Third Crusade 
Richard's Captivity in Germany 



131 
131-133 



Xll 



CONTENTS 



1189-1194. England during Richard's Absence 
1194-1199. England from 1194-1199 . 
1199. Richard's last Wars and Death 

1199-1216. Chapter VII. John Lackland 

Accession and Character of John . 

Arthur of Brittany . 

The Loss of Normandy and Anjou 

1214. Battles of La Roche au Moine and Bouvines 
1205. The Disputed Election at Canterbury 

1207. Appointment of Langton . 
Quarrel of John and Innocent in. . 

1208. The Interdict 

1209. The Excommunication 
1213. John becomes the Pope's Vassal . 

1213-1215. Quarrel between John and his Barons 

1215. The Great Charter . . . „ 
Renewal of the War of King and Barons 

1216. Death of John . 

1066-1216. Chapter VIII. Feudal Britain 

The Importance of the Norman Conquest 
Britain and the Continent . 
The King and the Great Council . 
Local Government . 
Earls, Barons, and Kjiights 
The Manorial System 
Towns and Trade 
Fashions of Living 
Food and Dress 
Norman Castles 
Norman Churches 

The Beginnings of Gothic Architecture 
New Monastic Movements . 
Twelfth-Century Renaissance 
Latin Literature 
English and French Literature 
Books recommended for the further study of the 
Period ...... 



PAGE 

134 

134-135 

135 



137-145 

137 
138 
1^9 

139-140 
140 
141 
141 
142 
142 

143 
143-144 
144 
145 
145 

146-156 

146 
147 
147 
148 
148 
149 
150 
151 
151 
152 
153 
153 
154 
155 
155 
156 



158 



BOOK III 



THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ENG- 
LISH NATION .... 



1216-1399. 

1216-1272. Chapter I. Henry III. 

1216. Accession of Henry in. .... 

1216-1217. Conflict between William Marshall and Louis of 

France ,...., 



159-253 

159-177 

159 

159-160 



CONTENTS 



xm 



DATE 

1217. 
1216-1219. 
1219-1232. 
1232-1234. 
1234-1258. 



1248-1252. 



1258. 

1259. 
1259-1263. 

1264. 

1264. 
1264-1265. 

1265. 

1265. 

1265. 
1265-1267. 

1267. 
1267-1272. 



The Battle of Lincoln and the Treaty of Lambeth 

The Rule of William Marshall 

The Rule of Hubert de Burgh 

The Rule of Peter des Roches 

The Personal Rule of Henry 

The Alien Invasion — Provencals, Savoyards and 

Romans ..... 
Edmund Rich and Robert Grosseteste 
Henry's Foreign Failures . 
The Poitevins in England . 
Rise of the Principality of North Wales . 
Simon of Montfort in Gascony 
Edmund, King of Sicily; and Richard, King of 

the Romans .... 
Political Retrogression and National Progress 
The Mad Parliament 

The Provisions of Oxford . . , 

The Treaty of Paris .... 
The Beginning of the Barons' War 
The Mise of Amiens 
The Battle of Lewes 
The Rule of Earl Simon 
The Parliament of 1265 
The Revolt of the Marchers 
The Battle of Evesham 
The Royalist Restoration . 
The Treaty of Shrewsbury . 
The End of the Reign 



1272-1307. Chapter 11. Edward I. 



1272-1274. 

1277. 
1282-1283. 

1284. 
1274-1290. 
1289-1290. 

1286-1290. 
1290-1292. 

1292. 
1259-1293. 
1293-1295. 

1295. 

1296. 

1297. 
1297. 
1297. 
1298. 



Character and Policy of Edward i. . 
The Government during Edward's Absence 
The First Welsh War 
The Conquest of the Principality . 
Settlement of the Principality 
Edward's Legislation 

Trials of the Judges and Expulsion of the Jews 
Scotland under Alexander iii. 
The Maid of Norway 
The Scottish Claimants 
Accession of John Balliol . 
England and France 
The French and Scottish Wars 
The Model Parliament 
The Conquest of Scotland . 
Clerical Opposition under Winchelsea 
Baronial Opposition under Norfolk and Hereford 
Confirmatio Cartarum 
Scottish Rising under Wallace 
Battle of Falkirk .... 
Edward's Reconciliation with France and the 
Church .,,... 



PAG>E 

i6o 
i6o 
160-161 
161 
162 

162-164 
164 
165 
165 
166 
166 

167 
167 
168 
168 
169 
169 
171 
172 
172 

173 
174 
175 

175 
176 

176-177 

178-197 

178 

179 
179 
181 
182 

182-185 
185 

185-186 
187 
188 
188 

1S9-191 

190-191 
191 
192 
192 

193 
193 

^93-194 
194 

194 



XIV 



CONTENTS 



Eeconciliation with the Barons 
1303-1305. The Second Conquest of Scotland 

1306. Eising of Robert Bruce 

1307. Death of Edward i. . 



195 
196 
196 

196-197 



1307-1327. Chapter III. Edward II. of Carnarvon . 198-204 



1307-1309. Edward ii. and Gaveston . 

1310-1311. The Ordinances and the Lords Ordainers 

1312. The Murder of Gaveston 
1307-1314. Robert Bruce conquers Scotland 
1314. The Battle of Bannockburn 

Thomas of Lancaster 
1322. The Battle of Boroughbridge and the Parliament 
of York . 
1322-1326. The Rule of the Despensers 

Isabella and Mortimer 
1326-1327. The Fall of Edward ii. 



198-199 

199 

199 

200 

200-201 

201-202 

202 

202 
203 
203 



1327-1377. Chapter IV. Edward III. 



1327-1330. 
1328. 
1328. 



1333. 



1839-1340. 
1340. 

1346. 

1346. 

1346-1347. 

1348-1349. 
1355-1356. 

:3S0. 

1367. 

1369. 
1369-1377. 

1351. 
1351-1353. 



The Rule of Isabella and Mortimer 

Treaty of Northampton 

Accession of Philip yi. in France . 

Character and Policy of Edward iii. 

David Bruce and Edward Balliol . 

Battle of Halidon Hill 

David finally established in Scotland 

Causes of the Hundred Years' War 

Chief Features of the Struggle 

The Netherlandish Campaigns 

The Battle of Sluys . 

War of the Breton Succession 

The Invasion of Normandy 

The Battle of Cr6cy . 

Calais, Auberoche, Neville's Cross, and La Roche 

Derien . . . . 

The Black Death . 
The Black Prince in Aquitaine 
The Battle of Poitiers 
The Treaties of Br6tigni and Calais 
The Civil War in Castile . 
The Battle of N4jera 
The Revolt of Aquitaine 
Fall of the English Power in France 
The Statute of Labourers . 
Anti-Papal Legislation 
Edward iii. and his Parliaments . 
Edward's Family Settlement 
The Court and Constitutional Parties 



205-227 

205-208 
205 
206 
208 

208-209 
209 
209 

210-21 1 
212 
212 
212 
213 
214 

214-215 

216 
216 
217 
217-218 
218-219 
219 
221 
221 
222 
223 
223 
224 
225 
226 



CONTENTS 



XV 



DATE 

1376. The Good ParHament 
1376-1377. John of Gaunt and John WycUffe 

1377. Death of Edward iii. 



PAGE 
226 

227 
227 



1377-1399. Chapter V. Richard II. of Bordeaux . 228-237 



1377-1381. 
1378. 



1381. 



1386-1388. 
1388. 
1396. 
1397. 
1398. 
1399. 



The Rule of John of Gaunt 

The Papal Schism .... 

The Teaching of Wycliffe . 

Causes of the Peasants' Revolt 

The Peasants' Revolt and its Suppression 

The Baronial Opposition and Thomas of 

Gloucester .... 

The Attack on and Defeat of the Courtiers 
The Merciless Parliament and the Lords Appellant 
The Great Truce and the French Marriage 
The Royalist Reaction 
The Banishment of Norfolk and Hereford 
The Lancastrian Revolution 
The Deposition of Richard ii. 



228 
229 
229 
229-230 
231 

232 
233 
234 
235 
235 
236 
236-237 

237 



1216-1399. Chapter VI. Britain in the Thirteenth 

and Fourteenth Centuries . . 238-253 



Mediaeval Civilization 

The King .... 

The Parliament of the Three Estates 

Convocation .... 

The House of Lords 

The House of Commons 

The King's Council and the Law Courts 

The Church and the Papacy 

St. Francis and the Mendicant Friars 

The Franciscans and Dominicans in England 

The Universities 

Gothic Architecture 

The Concentric Castle 

Arms and Armour . 

Chivalry and the Orders of Knighthood 

Cosmopolitan and National Ideas . 

Latin Literature. Matthew Paris 

French Literature. John Froissart 

English Literature. Geoffrey Chaucer 

William Langland . 

John Wycliffe and the Beginning of Modern 

English Prose . . , . , 

Books recommended for the further study of the 

Period ...... 



238 
238 
239 
239 
239 
240 
241 
242 

242-243 
244 

244-245 

245-247 
247 
248 

249 
249 
250 

251 
251-252 

252 
252-253 

253 



XVI 



CONTENTS 



BOOK IV 

DATE 

1399-1485. LANCASTER AND YORK 
1399-1413. Chapter I. Henry lY. 

1399. The Constitutional Revolution 

The Ecclesiastical Reaction 

Henry iv.'s Character and Difficulties 

Richard ii.'a Death . 

Owen Glendower 
1403. Revolt of the Percies 

Gradual Collapse of the Risings 

Henry iv. and France 

The Beauforts and the Prince of Wales 



PAGB 
255-307 

255-260 

255 
256 

257 
257 
257 
258 

259 
259 
260 



1413-1422. Chapter II. Henry V. 

Early Measures of Henry V. 

1414. Oldcastle and the Lollard Rising . 
Renewal of the Claim to the French Throne 

1415. First Expedition — Harfleur, Agincourt 
1415. The Council of Constance . 

1417-1419. The Conquest of Normandy 

1420. The Treaty of Troyes 

1421. Battle of Beaug6 .... 

1422. Third Expedition. Death of Henry , 



262-268 

262 
262-263 
263 
264-266 
266 
267 
267 
268 
268 



1422-1461. Chapter III. Henry VI. . 



1422. 
1422-1428. 
1422-1429. 

1428. 

1429. 
1431. 

1435. 

1444-1445. 

1447. 
1449-1451. 

1453. 

1450. 
1450. 

1450-1455. 



Regency of Bedford Established 

Bedford's Work in France . 

Gloucester as Protector of England 

The Siege of Orleans 

The Mission of Joan of Arc 

Battle of Patay. Coronation of Charles vi. 

Martyrdom of Joan of Arc . 

Coronation of Henry vi. at Paris . 

Congress of Arras and Death of Bedford . 

The Peace and War Parties in England . 

The Truce of Tours and the French Marriage 

Deaths of Gloucester and Beaufort 

The Loss of Normandy and Gascony 

The Battle of Castillon and the End of the 

Hundred Years' War 
Murder of Sufiolk .... 
Revolt of Jack Cade 
The Position of Richard Duke of York 
Beginning of the Wars of the Roses 
Characteristics of the Wars of the Roses . 
The House of Neville 



270-2S3 

270 

270-271 

272 

272-273 

273 

273 

275 

275 
276 

276 
277 
277 
278 

278 
278 
279 
279 
280 
281 
281 



CONTENTS 



XVll 



DATE 

1455-1459. 

1460. 

1460-1461. 

1460-1461. 

1461. 



Eeconciliation and the Renewal of the Strife 
York claims the Throne .... 
The Fall of Henry vi. . . . . 

Battles of Wakefield, Second St. Albans, and 
Mortimer's Cross ..... 
Edward of York chosen King 



PAGE 
282 
282 
283 

283 
283 



1461-1483. Chapter IV. Edward IV. . 

Edward iv. and the Yorkist Party 
1461. The Battle of Towton 

Triumph of Edward iv. 

The Nevilles and the Woodville Marriage 
1469. Robert Welles and Robin of Redesdale 

Alliance of Warwick and Margaret 
1470-1471. The Restoration of Henry vi. 
1471. The Battle of Tewkesbury . 

Edward iv., Burgundy, and France 

Home Policy of Edward iv. 
1478 and 1483. Death of Clarence and Edward iv. 



285-293 

285 
285 
288 
288 
288 
289 
289 
291 
292 
292 
293 



1483-1485. Chapter V. Edward V. and Richard III. 295-299 



1483. Accession of Edward v. 

The Deposition of Edward v. 
Richard iii. and Buckingham 
1483-1485. Richard iii.'s Policy 

The Beauforts and the Tudors 
1485. The Battle of Bosworth and 
Richard ni. 



the Death of 



295 
296 
297 
297 

298 

298-299 



1399-1485. Chapter VI. Britain in the Fifteenth 

Century ... . . . 300-307 



The Constitution in the Fifteenth Century 
The Church. The Universities and Learning 
Prosperity of the Fifteenth Century 
The Towns and Trade 
Late Perpendicular Architecture . 
Armours and Weapons 
Literature — Poetry — Prose 
The Invention of Printing. William Caxton 
Scotland in the Fifteenth Century 
The End of the Middle Ages 
Books recommended for the further study of 
Period ..... 



the 



300 

300-301 

301 

302 

302-303 

303 

-305 
305 
306 

IPl 
307 



o"i 



XVlll 



CONTENTS 



BOOK V 

DATE 

1485-1603. THE TUDORS 
1485-1509. Chapter I. Henry VII. 

Character of Henry vii. 

Continuance of the old Party Struggles . 

1486. Lord Lovel's Rising 

1487. Lambert Simnel's Imposture 
1492. The , Breton Succession, and the Treaty of 

Staples . . 

1492. Perkin Warbeck's Imposture 
1497-1499. The Cornish Rising, and the Execution of 

Warbeck and Warwick 
1496 and 1506. The Magnus Intercursus, and the Malus 
Intercursus . . . 

The European Political System 
1501. The Spanish Alliance 
. 1503. The Scottish Marriage 

Henry's Domestic Policy. His Ministers 
Reduction of the Power of the Nobles 
Welsh and Irish Policy 
1494. Poynings' Law .... 



PAGK 

308-419 

308-316 

308 
309 
309 
309 

310 
311-312 

312 

312 
313 
313 
314 
314 
315 
315 
316 



1509-1529. Chapter II. Henry VIII. and Wolsey 



1510. 



1512-1613. 
1513. 
1514. 



1520. 
1621-1525. 

1521. 



1617-1529. 



Character of Henry viii. 

Execution of Empson and Dudley 

The King's Ministers. Rise of Wolsey 

Foreign Politics .... 

Henry joins the Holy League 

War all over Europe 

Battles of the Spurs and Flodden . 

Peace with France and Scotland . 

The Young Princes . ' . 

Rivalry of Charles v. and Francis 1. 

Wolsey' s Foreign Policy. The Balance of Power 

The Field of the Cloth of Gold 

War with France . . . . . 

The Triumph of Charles, and the French Alliance 

The Fall of Buckingham . 

The King and the Commons 

The Renascence 

State of the Church .... 

The Oxford Reformers 

Erasmus and More .... 

Wolsey and the Church 

The Beginnings of the Reformation 

Luther, Zwingle, and Calvin 

Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn , 



317-336 

317 
318 

318-319 

319-320 
320 
320 

321-322 
323 

323-325 
325 
326 
326 
327 
327 
328 
328 
329 
329 
330 
330 
331 
332 

332-333 
335 



CONTENTS 



XIX 



1529. 



The Origin of the Divorce Question 
The Decretal Commission . 
The Fall of Wolsey . 



335 
335 
436 



1529-1547. Chapter III. Henry VIII. and the Be- 
ginning of the Reformation 

Progress of the Divorce Question . 

Henry viii, and his Subjects 
1529-1536. The Reformation Parliament 

Henry Supreme Head of the Church 
1532-1534. The Separation from Rome 

Cranmer and the Divorce . 

Henry viii. and Protestantism 

The Resistance to the Supremacy . 

The Charterhouse Monks and Reginald Pole 

1535. More and Fisher Executed . 
Cromwell Vicar-General 
State of the Monasteries 

1536. The Suppression of the Smaller Monasteries 
1536. The Pilgrimage of Grace 

1536-1539. The Suppression ot the Greater Monasteries 

The English Bible and the Growth of Reforming 

Opinions 
The King and his Wives 

1538-1547. Conspiracies 

1539. The Six Articles 

1540. Anne of Cleves and the Fall of Cromwell 
1540-1547. The Reactionary Period 
1542-1545. War with Scotland . 

1544. War with France 
1545-1547. The New Wave of Reformation 

Catharine Howard and Catharine Parr 

The Fall of the Howards . 

Henry viii. and Ireland 
1536. Union of England and Wales 



337-351 

337 
338 
338 
338 
339 
339 
340 
340 
341 
341 
341 
342-343 
343 
343 
344 

345 
345 
346 
346 
347 
348 
348 
349 
349 
349 
349 
350 
350 



1547-1553. Chapter IV. Edward VI. 



1547. 
1547. 

1548. 
1549. 
1549. 
1549. 
1549. 
1549-1553. 

1552. 
1553. 



Somerset becomes Protector 

Invasion of Scotland. Battle of Pinkie . 

Postponement of the Scottish Reformation 

Loss of Boulogne .... 

Progress of the Reformation. First Prayer-Book 

The Devonshire Rebellion . 

Ket's Rebellion .... 

Fall of Somerset .... 

The Ascendancy of Warwick 

Influence of the Foreigner Reformers 

The Second Prayer-Book of Edward vi. „ 

The Forty-two Articles 



352-360 

352 
353 
354 
354 
355 
356 
356 
357 
357 
357 
358 
358 



XX 



CONTENTS 



PATE 



1553. 



Failure of the King's Healtli 
Edward's Device for the Succession 
Que^ Jane and Queen Mary 



PAGE 
360 



1553-1558. Chapter V. Mary . 



1653. 

1554. 

1554. 

1555-1558. 



1652-1559. 

1557-1559. 

1558. 



Accession of Mary . 

The Work of Edward's Eeign Undone 

The Spanish Marriage 

Restoration of the Papal Supremacy 

The Marian Persecution 

Martyrdom of Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer 

Want of Toleration in the Sixteenth Century 

Isolation of Mary .... 

War between France and the Empire 

England at War with France 

Death of Mary .... 



361-367 

361 

361 
362 

363 

363 

364-365 

365 

366 
366 
367 
367 



1669. 

1563. 

1559-1575. 



1565. 



1558-1587. Chapter VI. Elizabeth and Mary Queen 
of Scots 

Character and Policy of Elizabeth 
The Queen's Ministers 
Leicester and the Courtiers 
The Eliziabethan Settlement of the Church 
The Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity 
The Thirty-nine Articles 
Archbishop Parker . 
Elizabeth and the Roman Catholics 
Geneva and the Calvinists . 
The Puritans and the Elizabethan Settlement 
Parker's Advertisements 
The Separatists 
1676 and 1583. Archbishops Grindal and Whitgift 
1593. Hooker's " Ecclesiastical Polity " . 

John Elnox on the Scottish Reformation 

Mary Queen of Scots 

The Counter Reformation . 

The Treaty of Le Cateau-Cambr^sis 

Philip II, and the Counter Reformation 

Francis 11. and his Queen . 

Rivalry of Mary and Elizabeth 

The Loss of Le Havre 

Mary Queen of Scots in Scotland 

The Darnley Marriage 

Murder of Riccio 

Murder of Darnley . 

Deposition of the Queen of Scots 

Mary's Flight to England . 

Mary's Imprisonment 

The Revolt of the Northern Earls 

The Bull of Excommunication 



1559. 



1563. 
1561. 
1565. 
1566. 
1567. 
1667. 
1568. 

1569. 
1670. 



368-389 

368 

369-370 

370 
370 
371 
371 

371 

372 
372 
373 
373 
374 
374 
374 
375-376 
376-377 
377 
378 
378 
379 
379 
379 
380 
380 
381 
381 
383 
3«3 
384 
384 
385 



CONTENTS 



xx! 



BATE 

1571. 



1580. 

1586. 
1687. 



The Ridolfi Plot .... 

Philip II. and the Revolt of the Netherlands 

The Seminary Priests 

The Jesuit Invasion 

The Bond of Association 

The Babington Conspiracy . 

Execution of Mary Queen of Scots 



386 
386 
386 

388 

388 

388-389 

389 



1587-1603. Chapter VII. The Latter Years of the 

Reign of Elizabeth . . . 390-407 

The Relations between England and Spain . 390 

Anglo-French Interference in the Netherlands . 39 1 

The Anjou Marriage Scheme . . . 39^ 

Leicester in the Netherlands . . . 39^ 

Spain and the Indies .... 392 

The Beginnings of English ]\Iaritime Enterprise . 393 

Chancellor's Voyage .... 393 

Protestantism and Maritime Adventure . . 394 

Hawkins and the Slave Trade . . . 394 

Drake's Voyage roimd the World . . . 396 

The Breach between England and Spain . . 396 

Philip's Plans for Invading England . . 397 
The Spanish Armada .... 397-399 

The Battle ofi Gravelines .... 399 

Results of the Protestant Victory . . . 399 

Henry iv., king of France .... 399 

The War with Spain .... 400 

The Capture of Cadiz .... 400 

The First Attempts at English Colonies . . 401 

Ireland under Mary Tudor . . . 401 

Shane O'Neill and Elizabeth . . . 402 

Ireland and the Counter- Reformation . . 402 
The Desmond Rebellion and the Plantation of 

Munster ...... 402 

The Irish Revolt imder Hugh O'Neill . . 404 

Essex in Ireland ..... 404 

Mount] oy suppresses the Rebellion . ' . 404 

Steps towards British Unity . . . 404 

The Cecils, Essex, and Raleigh . . . 405 

Continued Persecution of Puritans and Catholics 406 

Elizabeth and her Parliaments . . . 406 
1697 and 1601. The Monopolies Contest . . . 406-407 

1603. Death of Elizabeth .... 407 



1581. 
1586. 



1553. 

1562-1567. 

1677-1580. 

1584. 

1588. 



1589. 

1589-1603. 

1596. 



1579. 

1598. 

1599. 

1600-1603. 



1485-1603. Chapter VIII. England under the Tudors 408-418 



The Beginnings of Modern Times . 
The Tudor Monarchy 
Parliament under the Tudors 
Harmony between Crown and Parliament 
The King and his Ministers 



408 
408 
408-409 
409 
409 



XXll 



CONTENTS 



The Council 

The Star Chamber and its Victims 
Local Government . 
Military Weakness of the Crown . 
Social and Economic Changes 
The Poor Laws 

Increase of Refinement and Luxury 
Education and Travel 
Renascence Architecture . 
Other Arts .... 
Early Tudor Literature 
The Beginnings of Elizabethan Literature 
Spenser and the Poets 
The First Public Theatres . 
Marlowe and the Early Dramatists 
Shakespeare and his School 
Elizabethan Prose . 
Books recommended for the further study of the 
Period ...... 



PAaa 
410 
410 
411 
411 
411 
412 
413 
413 
414 

414 
415 
415 
416 
416-417 

417 
417 
418 

418 



BOOK VI 
1603-1714. THE STEWARTS . 
1603-1625. Chapter I. James I. 

The Union of the English and Scottish Crowns . 
Failure of James' Projects for more complete 

Union ..... 
Completion of the Conquest of Ireland 
1610. The Plantation of Ulster . 
1697 and 1632. Beginnings of English Colonies — Virginia and 
Maryland . . . 

The Plantation of New England . 
The Beginnings of the East India Company 
The Amboyna Massacre 
The Stewarts and Parliament 
Character of James i. . . . 

Robert Cecil and his Enemies 
The Hampton Court Conference . 
Archbishops Bancroft and Abbot . 
The Gunpowder Plot 
James and his Parliaments . 
The New Impositions and the Great Contract 
The Addled Parliament 
James's Family and Favourites . ! 

Robert Ker. George Villiers 
James's Foreign Policy 
Raleigh's Last Voyage and Execution \ 
The Beginning of the Thirty Years' War . 
James's efiorts to restore the Elector Palatine 



1620-1629 
1600 
1623 



1604. 



1605. 

1610. 
1614. 



1617-1618 

1618 

1622-1623 



420-533 

420-434 
420 



421 
422 
422 

423 
423 
424 
424 
425 
425 
426 
426 
427 
427 
428 
428 
429 
429 
429-430 

430 
431 
431 
432 



CONTENTS 



XXlll 



DATE 

1623. 

1621. 

1621. 

1624-1625. 



Failure of the Spanish Marriage . 

James's Third Parliament . 

The Fall of Bacon . 

James's Fom:th Parliament and Death 



1625-1649. Chapter II. Charles I. 

Character of Charles i. 
1625. The War with Spain and Charles's First 
Parliament 
Home and Foreign Policy 
The French War and Charles's Second Parliament 
1626-1627. The Forced Loan and Darnell's Case 

1628. Charles's Third Parliament and the Petition of 
Right ..... 

1628. Murder of Buckingham 

1629. Dissolution of Charles's Third Parliament 
1629-1640. Charles's Arbitrary Rule . 

Charles's Expedients for raising Money . 
1637. Ship Money. Hampden's Case 
Charles's Ecclesiastical Policy 
Archbishop Laud and the Puritans 
The Victims of Charles's Policy 
Thomas Wentworth 

1637. The Scottish Prayer-book 

1638. The National Covenant 

1639. The First Bishops' War 

1640. The Short Parliament 
1640. The Second Bishops' War 

The Great Council at York 

1640. Meeting of the Long Parliament . 

1641. Attainder of Strafford 
1640-1641. Remedial Measures of the Long Parliament 

1641. The Root and Branch Bill . 

1641. The Incident .... 

1641. The Irish Rebellion . 

1641. The Grand Remonstrance . 
The Division of Parliament into Two Parties 

1642. The Attack on the Five Members . 
The Rupture between King and Parliament 
The Royalist and Parliamentarian Parties 

1642. The Campaign of Edgehill and Brentford . 

1643. Royalist Successes .... 
First Battle of Newbury 
Cromwell and the Eastern Association 
The Cessation, and the Solemn League and 

Covenant ..... 

1644. Renewed Fighting. Battle of Marston Moor 
The Destruction of Essex's Army and the Rising 

of Montrose 

1645. The New Model and the Self -Denying Ordinance 
1645. The Battle of Naseby 
1645. The Battle of Philiphaugh 



432 
433 
433 
434 

435-461 
435 

436 
436 
436 
437 

438 
438 
439 
439 
. 440 

440-441 
441 
441 
442 

442-443 
443 
444 
444 
445 
445 
445 
446 
446 
446 
447 
447 
447 
448 

448 
448-449 

449 

449 
450-45 1 

450 
451-452 

452 

452 
453-456 

457 
457 
458 
459 



h 2 



XXIV 



CONTENTS 



DATE 

1646. 



1648. 
1648-1649. 



Charles surrenders to the Scots 

Presbyterians and Independents . 

Parliament and the Army . 

Charles intrigues with the Army and the Presby-' 
terians . . • • • 

The Second Civil War . . . . 

The Triumph of the Independents and the Execu- 
tion of Charles i. . 



PAGS 

459 
459 
460 

460-461 
461 

461 



1649-1660. Chapter III. The Commonwealth and 

the Protectorate .... 462-472 

1649. Establishment of the Commonwealth . « 462 

Difficulties of the New Government . . 463 

1649-1650. Cromwell's Conquest of Ireland . . . 463 

1649-1651. Charles 11., King of Scots .... 464 

1650-1651. Battles of Dunbar and Worcester .. . . 464 

1652-1653. The Dutch War ..... 465 

1653. The Expulsion of the Rump . , . 465 

The Little Parliament .... 466 

The Instrument of Government . • . 466 

1653-1658. Cromwell as Protector .... 467 

1656. The Major-Generals .... 467 
Cromwell's Puritan State Church . , . 468 
Cromwell's Foreign Policy .... 469 

1655. The French Alliance .... 469 

1655, 1658. Jamaica, and the Battle of the Dunes ' . . 469 

1657. The Humble Petition and Advice . . . 470 
1658-1659. The Protectorate of Richard Cromwell . . 470 

The Rump Restored . . . . 471 

1659. A Presbyterian Revolt Suppressed . . , 471 

1660. Monk declares for a Free Parliament . . 471 
1660. The Declaration of Breda and the Restoration of 

Charles 11. ..... 422 



1660-1685. Chapter IV. Charles II. 



1660-1661. 

1661. 

1661-1665. 



1665-1667. 

1663. 
1667. 
1681. 
1667. 
1667-1673. 



Work of the Convention 

The Restoration Settlement of the Church 

The Clarendon Code 

The Reaction against Puritanism . 

The Restoration in Scotland 

The Restoration in Ireland . 

The Restoration and Foreign Policy 

The Rivalry of England and Holland 

The Dutch War 

Growth of the American Colonies 

Carolina 

New York and New Jersey . 

Pennsylvania 

The Fall of Clarendon 

The Cabal . 



473-488 

473 
474 
475 
476 
476 

477 
477 
478 
478 
479 
479 
479 
479 
481 
481-482 



CONTENTS 



XXV 



DATE 

1668. 

1670. 

1672-1673. 

1673. 

1673-1678. 

1678. 
1678-1679. 

1679. 

1679. 

1679. 

1680. 

1681. 

1683. 
1682-1685. 



The Triple Alliance .... 

The Treaty of Dover 

The Dutch War .... 

The Declaration of Indulgence, the Test Act, and 

the Fall of the Cabal 
The Ministry of Danby 
The Treaty of Nijmegen 
The Popish Plot .... 
The Habeas Corpus Act, and the Exclusion Bill 
Whigs and Tories. High Church and Low Church 
Battle of Bothwell Bridge . 
The Lords reject the Exclusion Bill 
The Oxford Parliament 
The Eye House Plot 
The Tory Reaction, and the Death of Charles ii 



PAGB 

482 
482 
485 

484 
484 

485 
485 
486 
486-487 
487 
487 
487 
488 
488 



1685-1688. Chapter V. James II. 



1685. 
1685. 
1685. 



1685. 

1688. 

1688-1689. 
1688. 



Character of James 11. . 

The First Parliament of James 11. 

Argyll's Rebellion . . . . 

Monmouth's Rebellion 

Breach between James and the Tories 

The Dispensing and the Suspending Powers 

The Court of High Commission 

The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes 

Tyrconnell in Ireland 

The Declaration of Indulgence 

The Invitation to William of Orange 

The Fall of James 11. . . . 

The Convention and the Declaration of Right 



489-495 

489 
489 
490 
490 
492 
492 

493 
493 
493 
494 
494 
495 
495 



1689-1702. Chapter VI. William III. and Mary . 496-510 



1689. 

1689. 
1689. 



1689. 
1690. 
1691. 

1689. 

1692. 
1689-1697. 
1690-1692. 

1697. 

1694. 



The Accession of William and Mary and the Bill 
of Rights ..... 

The Mutiny Act and the Revenue . 

The Toleration Act . 

The Low Church Triumph and the Schism of 
the Non-Jurors .... 

James's Power upheld in Ireland . 

Siege of Derry and the Battle of Newtown Butler 

Battle of the Boyne 

The Protestant Conquest of Ireland 

The Revolution in Scotland 

Battle of Killiecrankie 

The Massacre of Glencoe 

The War against France 

Battles of Beachy Head and La Hougue . 

Peace of Ryswick .... 

Financial Policy .... 

Death of Queen Mary . . , 



496 
497 
497 

498 
498 
499 
499 
500 
500 
501 
501 
502 

503 
503 
503 
504 



XXVI 



CONTENTS 



DATE 

1696. 
1696. 

1695-1699. 
1698-1699. 

1700. 
1698-1700. 

1701. 



1702. 



The Bond of Association . 

The First United Whig Ministry . 

Beginnings of Cabinet Government 

The Darien Scheme 

The Spanish Partition Treaties 

The Failure of the Partition Treaties 

The Tory Beaction . 

The Act of Settlement 

The Constitutional Limitations in the Act of 

Settlement 
The Grand Alliance and the Death of William iii 



505 
505 
505 
506 

507 
508 

509 

509 

509 
510 



1702-1714. Chapter VII. Queen Anne 



1702-1708. 
1702-1713. 
1702-1703. 

1703. 

1704. 
1704-1706. 

1707. 
1708-1709. 

1710. 
1702-1708. 
1708-1710. 

1709. 
1710-1713. 

1713. 



1714. 
1699-1702. 
1703-1704. 
1704-1707. 



1707. 



Character of Queen Anne . 

The Rule of Marlborough and GodolpMn 

The War of the Spanish Succession 

The Early Campaigns of the War . 

The Methuen Treaty 

The Battle of Blenheim 

Victories of the Allies 

The Battle of Almanza 

Battles of Oudenarde and Malplaquet 

Battle of Brihuega . 

Party Contests 

Marlborough's Whig Ministry 

The Impeachment of Dr. Sacheverell ' 

The Tory Ministry . 

The Treaty of Utrecht 

End of the Age of Louis xiv. 

The Tory Ministry and the Protestant Succession 

The Fall of Oxford and the Death of Queen Anne 

Strained Relation between England and Scotland 

The Act of Security ..... 

The Flying Squadron and fche Negotiations for 

the Union . . 

The Parliamentary Union of England and 

Scotland ...... 



511-523 

511 

512 
512 
512 

513 
515 
515 
51S 
516 
516 
517 

518 
518 
520 
520 
521 
521 
522 

522 
523 



1603-1714. 



Chapter VIII. 
Stewarts 



Great Britain under the 



Colonial and Commercial Development 

Results of the Growth of Trade on England 

Manufactures 

The Poor and the Poor Law 

London and the Towns 

Amusements 

Communications 

Dress 

Education 

Natural Science 



524-533 

524 
524 
525 
525 
526 
526 
527 
527 
528 
528 



CONTENTS 



xxvu 



DATB 



Architecture . . . . , 

Painting, Sculpture, and Music 
The Drama ..... 
Milton and the Poets 
Dryden and the Poetry of the Restoration 
Establishment of Modern Prose Style 
Books recommended for the further study of the 
Period ...... 



529 
529 
530 
531 

532 
533 

533 



BOOK VII 



1714-1820. 



THE HOUSE OF 
THE RULE OF 
RACY 



HANOVER AND 
THE ARISTOC- 



1714-1727. Chapter I. George I. 



1714. 
1714-1761. 



1715. 
1715. 

1715. 

1715. 

1716. 
1714-1717. 

1717. 

1719. 
1717-1720. 

1718. 

1720. 

1721. 
1727. 



The Accession of George i. . 

The Long Whig Rule 

The Law and Custom of the Constitution 

The Cabinet System 

The Supremacy of the Commons . 

The Whig Aristocracy 

The Jacobites 

The Riot Act ... 

The Highlands of Scotland . 

The Jacobite Rising . 

Battle of Sheriffmuir and Collapse of the Rebellion 

The Septennial Act . 

The Whig Ministry . 

The Whig Schism . 

The Peerage Bill 

Foreign Policy and Alberoni 

Battle of Cape Passaro 

The South Sea Bubble 

The Bursting of the Bubble 

Walpole Prime Minister 

Death of George i. . 



1727-1760. Chapter II. George II. 



1721-1742. 



1733. 
1737. 



George 11. and Caroline of Anspach 

Character and Policy of Walpole 

Parliamentary Management 

Walpole the First Prime Minister 

The Opposition to Walpole . 

The " Patriot Whigs " 

The " Boys " and William Pitt 

Bolingbroke and the New Tories 

The Failure of Walpole's Excise Scheme 

The Porteous Riots in Edinburgh . 



536-641 

536-545 

536 
537 
537 
537 
537 
538 
539 
539 
539 
540 
541 
541 
542 
542 
542 
543 
543 
544 
545 
545 



546-569 

546 
547 
547 
548 
548 
549 
549 
549 
550 
551 



XXVlll 



CONTENTS 



DATE „ . , __. 

1725 and 1731. The Two Treaties of Vienna . 
1738. The Third Treaty of Vienna 

Outbreak of War with Spain 

The War of the Austrian Succession 

The Fall of Walpole 

The Carteret Ministry 

The Pelham Ministry 

Battle of Dettingen . 

Battle of Fontenoy . 

Jacobite Eevolt and the Young Pretender 

The March to Derby 

Battles of Falkirk and CuUoden . 

The Subjugation of the Highlands 

The Treaty of Aachen 

Pelham's Domestic Reforms 

The Newcastle Ministry and the Whig Schism 

William Pitt and the Whig Opposition 

The Duke of Devonshire's Ministry 

The Pitt-Newcastle Ministry 

Origin of the Seven Years' War 

Commercial and Colonial Bivalry of France and 
England . 

European Traders in India under the Mogul 
Empire ..... 

Dupleix's Plans . . . , 

England and France in India 

Olive and the Siege of Arcot 
1757 and 1760. The Battles of Plassey and Wandewash 

France and England in North America . 

Fort Duquesne .... 

The European Coalition against Prussia and 
England . 

British Disasters 

Pitt as the Inspirer of Victory 

The Conquest of Canada 

Death of George n. 



1739 
1740-1748. 

1742. 
1742-1744. 
1744-1754. 

1743. 

1745. 

1745. 

1745. 

1746. 

1748. 
1748-1754. 
1754-1756. 

1756-1757. 
1757-1761. 



1740-1755. 
1751. 



1756. 

1756-1757. 

1757-1760. 

1758-1760. 

1760. 



551 
552 

552 
553-554 
553 
553 
553 
554 
555 
555 
556 
558 
558 
559 
559 
560 
560 
561 
561 
561 

562 

562 
563 
563 
563 
564 
564 
565 

^ 565 
566 
566 
568 
569 



1760-1789. Chapter III. George III. and the War 
of American Independence 



1761. 
1761-1763. 
1763-1770. 

1763. 
1763-1765. 

1765. 
1765-1766. 
1766-1768. 



Character and Policy of George iii. 

George iii. and Pitt 

Pitt driven from Office 

The Bute Ministry and the Peace of Paris 

George iii. and Foreign Politics . 

The Resignation. of Bute 

Th§ Grenville Ministry 

Wilkes and the " North Briton " . 

The Stamp Act and the Fall of Grenville 

The Rockingham Ministry . 

The Chatham Ministry 

The Renewal of the Wilkes Troubles 



570-592 

570 

571 
572 
572 
573 
573 
574 
574 
575 
57.5 
576 
576 



CONTENTS 



XXIX 



Burke and Junius . . , 

1768-1770. The Grafton Ministry 
.1770-1782. The North Ministry 

Origin of the American Revolution 
1768-1770. Townshend's Customs Duties and the American 
Resistance .... 

1773. Lord North and the Tea Duty 
Failure of Conciliation 

1775. Beginning of the War. Lexington and Bunker' 

Hill . • . . . 

1776. The Declaration of Independence . 
Characteristics of the American War 

1777. The Capitulation of Saratoga 
1778-1780. The European Attack on Britain . 

Chatham and American Independence 

1778. Death of Chatham .... 

1781. Yorktown and the End of the American War 

1782. Rodney restores British Naval Supremacy 
Warren Hastings restores British Supremacy in 

India .... 

1780. The Gordon Riots . 

Ireland imitates America 
1782. The Legislative Independence of Ireland 

1782. The Second Rockingham Ministry . 
Burke and Economical Reform 

1782-1783. The Shelburne Ministry . 

1783. The Treaty of Versailles 
1783. The Coalition of Fox and North 

1783. The Coalition Ministry 
Fox's India Bill 

1783-1801. William Pitt's Ministry 

Character and Policy of the Younger Pitt 

1784. Pitt's India Bill and Warren Hastings 
Pitt's Foreign Policy 

1788. The Regency Question 



PAGE 

576 
576 
577 
577 

578 
580 
580 

581 
581 
582 
582 
582 
583 
583 
584 
584 

585 
585 
585 
586 

586 
587 
587 
587 
587 
588 
588 

589 
590 
591 
591 
592 



1789-1802. 



1789. 
1789-1792. 
1793-1795. 

1792. 



1793-1797. 



1798. 
1798. 



Chapter IV. George III. The French 
Revolution and the Irish Union 

France before the Revolution 

Voltaire and Rousseau 

The Meeting of the States General 

The New Constitution and its Failure 

The Reign of Terror 

Europe at War with the Revolution 

England and the French Revolution 

The Reaction and Pitt 

England joins the War against the Revolution 

The Suspension of Cash Payments . 

The Revolutionary War at Sea 

Buonaparte in Egypt . . . 

The Battle of the Nile 



593-606 

593 
594 
594 
595 
595 
595 
596 
597 
597-598 
598 
599 
599 
600 



XXX 



CONTENTS 



DATE 

1799. The Mysore War . . . , . 
1799-1801. The War of the Second Coalition . 
1800-1801. The Battle of Marengo, and the Treaty of 

Lun^ville ...... 

The Armed Neutrality and the Battle ©f 
Copenhagen ..... 

1801-1802. The Addington Ministry and the Treaty of Amiens 

The Pilot that weathered the Storm 
1782-1800. Ireland under Grattan's Parliament 

The United Irishmen and the French Revolution 

1793-1794. The Relief Act, and the Government of Lord 

Fitzwilliani ..... 

1798. Irish Rebellion ..... 

Pitt's Irish Policy . . . . . 

1800. The Union ...... 

1801. Failure of Catholic 

Resignation of Pitt 



Emancij^ation and the 



PAGE 

6oo 
6oo 

6oi 

6oi 
6oi 
6o2 
6o2 
603 

603 

604 

604-605 

60s 

605-606 



1802-1820. Chapter V. George III. and Napoleon 



1803. 
1803-1814. 

1803. 
1798-1805. 
1804-1806. 

1804-1805. 

1805. 
1805-1806. 

1806. 
1806-1807. 

1806. 

1807. 
1807-1830. 

1807. 

1808. 

1808. 
1808-1809. 

1809. 

1809. 

1809. 

1810. 

1811. 
1812-1813. 

1814. 

1812-1814. 

1815. 

1815. 



The Rupture of the Treaty of Amiens 

The Napoleonic War 

Emmet's Rebellion . . . . 

Wellesley establishes British Supremacy in India 

Pitt's Second Ministry 

The Volunteer Movement . . * . 

The Army of England, and the Supremacy of the 

Seas .... 

Battle of Trafalgar . 
The Third Coalition and its Failure 
Death of Pitt 

Ministry of All the Talents 
Death of Fox 

The Resign.ation of Grenville 
The Long Tory Rule 
The Conduct of the War . 
The Treaty of Tilsit . 
The Continental System 
The Spanish Rising against Napoleon 
Arthur WeUesley's Conquest of Portugal 
The Failure of Sir John Moore 
The War between France and Austria 
Walcheren and Wagram 
The Battle of Talavera 
Torres Vedras and Busaco . 
Fuentes de Onoro and Albuera 
The Russian, German, and Spanish National 

Revolts 
The Fall of Napoleon 
The War with the United States . 
The Hundred Days . 
Battle of Waterloo , 



607-625 

607 
608 
609 
609 
610 
610 

610 
6u 
612 
612 
612 
613 
613 
613 
614 
614 
614-615 
615 
616 
617 
617 
618 
618 
620 
620 

620 
621 
621 
622 
622-623 



CONTENTS 



XXXI 



DATE 

1815. The Congress of Vienna .... 

1315-1820. England after the Peace .... 

1820. Death of George iii. .... 

1714-1820. Chapter VI. Great Britain during the 
Eighteenth Century: The Industrial 
Revolution . . . 

Commercial Ascendency of Great Britain . 
The Age of Inventions 
Roads, Turnpikes, and Tramways . 
Navigable Rivers and Canals 
The Factory System and the Industrial Revolutio 
The Agrarian Revolution . . 

Pauperism and the Corn Laws 
The " Age of Reason " . 

The ]\Iethodist Movement . 
The Evangelical Movement 
Religion in Scotland 
Humanitarianism and Philanthropy 
Social Life ..... 
Art . 

Poetry and the Drama 
Prose ..... 

The Romantic Revival 

Books recommended for the further study of the 
Period ...... 



PAGE 
623 
625 
625 



626-639 

626 
626-627 
627-628 

628 
628-630 
630-631 

631 

632 

633-634 
634 

634-635 

^ 635 

636 

637 
637-638 

638-639 



639 



BOOK VIII 
1820-1901. NATIONALITY AND DEMOCRACY . 642-727 



1820-1830. Chapter I. George IV. 



1820. 
1820. 
1820. 

1822. 



1827. 



1827. 
1827-1828. 
1828-1830. 



Accession of George iv. . 

The Trial of Queen Caroline 

The Cato Street Conspiracy 

The Old and the New Tories 

The Canningites admitted to Office 

Canning's Foreign Policy . 

The Holy Alliance .... 

The Revolt of the Spanish Colonies and the 

Monroe Doctrine .... 
Canning and the Greek Insurrection 
Battle of Navarino .... 
Peel's Reforms as Home Secretary 
Huskisson's Commercial and Financial Reforms 
Canning's Ministry and Death 
The Goderich Ministry 
The Wellington Ministry . 
The Catholic Association and the Clare Election 



642-649 

642 
643 
643 
643 
644 
644 
644 

645 
645 
646 
646 
647 
647 
647 
647 
648 



XXXll 



CONTENTS 



PATE , ... 

1829. Catholic Emancipation 
Wellington's Foreign Policy 

1830. Death of George iv. . 

1830-1837. Chapter II. William IV. 



1830. 
1830. 



1831-1833. 
1882. 

1832-1835. 



1834. 
1837. 



Democracy and Nationality 

Revolutions on the Continent 

The Agitation for Parliamentary Eeform 

William iv. and the Grey Ministry 

The Need for Parliamentary Reform 

The Reform Movement under George iv. 

The Struggle for Reform 

The First Reform Act passed 

Irish Repeal and the Tithe War 

Other Reforms 

Palmer ston's Foreign Policy 

The Melbourne Ministry 

Peel and the Conservative Party 

Death of William iv. 



648-649 

649 

s 649 

650656 

650 
650 

651 

651 
652 
652 
653 
653 
654 
654 
655 
655 
655 
656 



1837-1865. 



Chapter III. 
ston . 



Victoria — Peel and Palmer- 



Separation of England and Hanover 

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert . 

The Changed Conception of the Work of the 

Monarchy and House of Lords . 
Socialism and Chartism 
Melbourne's Ministry 
Conservative Reaction 
Foreign Policy of the Peel Ministry 
Young Ireland. Peel's Irish Policy 
The Corn Laws and Popular Unrest 
The Anti-Corn Law League 
Peel and Free Trade 
The Failure of the Irish Potato Crop 
The Repeal of the Corn Laws 
Fall of Peel .... 
Peelites, Protectionists, Liberals, and Radicals 
The Russell Ministry 
The Irish Famine and its Conseq-uences 
The Year of Revolutions 
Chartism and Young Ireland 
Palmerston's Foreign Policy 
1851 and 1852. Dismissal of Palmerston and Russell 
1852. The First Derby-Disraeli Ministry . 
The Aberdeen Coalition Ministry . 
Nicholas i. and the Eastern Question 
Origin of the Crimean War 
The Crimean War . 
Palmerston's First Ministry 



1835-1841. 

1841. 

1841-1846. 



1839. 

1845. 
1846. 
1846. 

1846-1852. 
1846-1847. 

1848. 

1848. 



1862-1855. 



1854-1856. 
1855-1858. 



657-673 

657 
657 

658 
659 
659 
660 
660 
661 
662 
662 
663 
663 
663 
664 
664 
665 
665 
666 
. 666 
666 
667 
667 
668 
668 
669 
669 
671 



CONTENTS 



xxxm 



DATE 

1858-1859. 
1859-1865. 

1861-1865. 

1865. 



The Second Derby-Disraeli Ministry 

The Second Palmerston Ministry . 

Italian and German Unity 

The American Civil War 

Palmerston' s Foreign Policy 

The Death of Palmerston and its Results 



PAGE 

671 
672 
672 
672 
673 
673 



1865-1886. 



Chapter IV. 
Disraeli 



Victoria — Gladstone and 



1865. Beginning of the Transition to Democracy 
1865-1866. The Russell Ministry and the Refoi-m Bill 
1866-1868. The Third Derby-Disraeli Ministry 

1867. The Second Reform Act 
The Fenians 
1868-1874. The First Gladstone Ministry 

1869. Disestablishment of the Irish Church 
Irish Land System . 

1870. The First Irish Land Act . 
1870. The Education Act and Other Reforms 

1870-1871. The Franco-German War and its Results 
Gladstone's Foreign Policy 
1874. Fall of Gladstone . 
1874-1880. The Disraeli Ministry 

The Home Rule Movement 
1877-1878. The Russo-Turkish War . 

1878. The Treaties of San Stefano and Berlin 

1879. The Dual Contest in Egypt 

1880. Fall of Beaconsfield 
1880-1885. The Second Gladstone Ministry . 

Its Irish Policy 
Egypt and the Sudan 

1885. The Death of Gordon 
1884-1885. The Third Reform Act 
1885-1886. The First Salisbury Ministry 

1886. The Third Gladstone Ministry 
1886. Home Rule and the Break-up of the Old Parties 



674-685 

674 

674 

675 
675 
676 
676 
676 

676-677 
677 
677 
678 
678 
679 

. 679 
679 
680 
, 681 
681 
682 
682 
682 
683 
683 
684 
684 
684 
685 



1886-1901. Chapter V. Victoria— Home Rule and 

the Empire ..... 686-694 

1886-1892. The Salisbury Unionist Ministry ... 686 

The Plan of Campaign .... 686 

1888-1889. The Parnell Commission . . . . 687 

1890-1891. Parnellites and Anti-Parnellites . . . 687 
1886-1892. Foreign Policy. The Triple and the Dual 

Alliances ...... 688 

1887. The Queen's Jubilee .... 688 

1892-1894. The Fourth Gladstone Ministry ... 689 

1893. The Lords Reject the Home Rule Bill . . 689 

Filling up the Cup • , . . . 689 



XXXIV 



CONTENTS 



DATE 

1894-1895. The Rosebery Ministry 
1895-1901. The Third Salisbury Ministry 

Armenia and Crete. Other Foreign Troubles 
1896-1899. The Conquest of the Sudan 

1898. Fashoda . . . - • 

Troubles in the Far East . 

1897 and 1901. The Diamond Jubilee and the Death of Queen 

Victoria ...••• 



PAGE 

690 

690 
691 

692 

693 
693 

694 



1820-1901. Chapter VI. The United Kingdom in 

the Nineteenth Century . . . 695-708 



Increase of the Functions of the State 

Central Government 

Local Government .... 

The Army and the Navy . 

The Church ..... 

The Tractarian Movement and its Results 

The Protestant Nonconformists 

The Roman Catholics 

The Established Church and the Free Church in 

Scotland ..... 
Material Wealth .... 
Steamboats . . . . ^ . 

Steam Railways and other Inventions 
Social and Industrial Progress 
Architecture ..... 
Painting, Music, and Sculpture . * 

Natural Science .... 
Poetry and Prose 
Education ..... 



695 
695 
696 

697-698 
698 

698-699 

699 
700 

700 

701 

701 

702-703 

703 
704 

705 

705 

706-707 

707-708 



1820-1901. Chapter VII. British India in the Nine- 
teenth Century .... 709-718 



1820. 

1820. 
1828-1835. 
1839-1842. 
1843 and 1845 
1849 and 1852 



1857. 

1858. 

1878-1880. 



The Indian and Colonial Empires . 

The Condition of British India 

The Condition of the Indian Vassal States 

The Governorship of Lord William Bentinck 

The Afghan War .... 

The Conquest of Sind and the First Sikh War 
Annexations of the Punjab and of Lower 
Burma 
Dalhousie's Doctrine of Lapse 
Lord Canning and the Indian Mutiny 
End of the East India Company . 
Second Afghan War . 
India at the End of Victoria's Reign 



709 
710 
710 
711 
712 
712 

713 
713 

714 

715 
716 

716 



CONTENTS 



XXXV 



1783-1901. Chapter VIII. The British Colonies in 

the Nineteenth Century . . ,719-727 

British Colonies in the Latter Part of the 

Eighteentjh Century 
Colonial Expansion during the Revolutionary 

and Napoleonic Wars 
Decay of the West Indies . 
The Emigration Movement 
Phases of Colonial Policy . 
1840-1856, Growth of Colonial Independence 
Colonial Federation, 
The North American Colonies 
1867. The Dominion of Canada . 
1901. The Commonwealth of Australia 
South Africa 
The Boer Republics 

The Rand Mines and the Struggle Qi Boer and 
Outlander 
1899. The Boer War 

The Establishment of British Supremacy 
Books recomm.ended for the further study of the 
Period . . , . . 

BOOK IX 
1901-1918. THE HOUSE OF WINDSOR . 
1901-1910. Chapter I. The Reign of Edward VII 



719 

720 
720-721 
721 
721 
722 
722 
723 
723 
723-724 

724 

724 

725 
726-727 

727 

727-728 



1901-1902. 
1902-1910. 

1910. 
1902-1905. 

1902. 

1903. 

1904. 

1903. 

1904-1905. 

1905. 



1903. 
1905. 
1906. 

1908. 

1906-1907. 

1909. 

1910. 



The Goburg-Gotha succession » 

Character of Edward vii. 

End of the Boer War 

South African Settlement . 

The Federation of South Africa 

The Balfour Ministry 

Balfour's Education Act 

Irish Land Act 

Licensing Act 

The Isolation of England 

The Convention with France 

Russo-Japanese War 

The North Sea incident 

Edward the Peace Maker 

Tariff Reform 

Resignation of Chamberlain 

Resignation of Balfour 

Liberal victory at Elections and Campbell- Banner 

man Ministry 
The Asquith Ministry 
Liberal Education bills — The Liberals and the Lords 
House of Lords throws out the Budget 
General Election 
Death of Edward vii. 



728-765 

728-739 

728 
729 
729 
730 
730 
730 
730 
731 
731 
732 
732 
732 
733 
733 
734 
734 
735 

735 
736 
736-738 
73^ 
738 
739 



XXXVl 



CONTENTS. 



1910-1918. Chapter II. George V. and the Great War 

George V. and the House of Windsor 
The Crown, the Dominions and India 

1910. The Second Election of 1910 

1911. The Parliament Act and the Lords' Veto 

1911. National Insurance Act 

1912. Home Rule, Welsh Disestablishment and Reform 

BiUs 

1912. The Session of 1912 
1913-1914. Ulster and Home Rule 

1914. The Ulster Covenant and the Amending Bill 
Origin of the Great War 
1909-1912. Continental Troubles. Morocco, the Turkish 

Revolution, and the Turko-Italian War 
1912-1913. The Balkan League and its Dissolution . 
1914. The Crime of Serajevo and its Consequences 
1914. Britain joins the war 
1914. The Invasion of France 
1914. The Battles of the Marne and Aisne 

1914. The First Battle of Ypres . 
1914-1917. The Western Campaigns 
1914-1917. The Campaigns against Russia 

1915. The Dardanelles Expedition 
1915-1916. The War in Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Mace^ 

donia .... 

1916-1917. The War between Italy and Austria 

1916. The battle off Jutland and the Supremacy of the 

Seas .... 

The War in the Dominions 
The Submarine Peril 
The Gerraan Policy of Ruthlessness 
1315-1916. The Asquith National Ministry . 

1916. The Dublin Easter Rebellion 
Lloyd George as the National Leader 

1916-1918. The Lloyd George Coalition Ministry 

The Organization of the Nation for War 

1917. Successes and Failures in the West 
1917. The Eastern Victories 

1917. America joins the War 

1918. The German Spring Ofiensive 
1918. The Unity of Command . 
1918. Foch turns the Western tide 
1918. The Submission of Turkey and Bulgaria 
1918. The Submission of Austria 

1918. The Reconquest of Northern France and Flanders 

1918. The Armistice 

1916-1918. Home Problems 

Ireland and Sinn Fein 

The Reform Act of 1918 . 

Education and National Reconstruction 



PAGE 

740-765 

740 
740-741 

741 

741-742 

742 

742-743 
743 

743-744 
744 

744-745 

745-746 
746-747 

747 
747-748 

748 
748-750 

750 

750-752 

752-753 
753-754 

754 
754 

755 
755 

755-756 
756 

756-757 
757 
757 

757-758 
758 

758-759 
759 

759-760 
760 

760-761 
761 
761 
762 

762-763 

763 
763-765 
763-764 

764 
764-765 



LIST OF BIBLIOGRAPHIES 



Books recommended 

to 1066 . 
Books recommended 

1066-1215 
Books recommended 

1215-1399 
Books recommended 

1399-1485 
Books recommended 

1485-1603 
Books recommended 

1608-1714 
Books recommended 

1714-1820 
Books recommended 

1820-1901 



for the fmrther study of the Period, up 
for the further study of the Period, 
for the further study of the Period 
for the further study of the Period 
for the further study of the Period 
for the further study of the Period 
for the further studv of the Period 



for the further study of the Period, 



PAGE 

80-81 

158 

418 

r T» 



o 727-728 



xxxvu 



LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS 



Koman Britain . 

South Britain after the English Conquest (about 607) 

Map showing position of Nectansmere 

The Welsh and English Lands in Ofia/'s Time 



The Voyages and States of the Norsemen up to the Tenth Century 42 

England after Alfred and Guthrum's Peace, 886 

England at the Death of Edward the Confessor 

The Battle of Hastings ..... 

The New Forest ...... 

England and Wales during the Norman Period 

Plan of Christ Church, Canterbury .... 

France in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, showing the 

Continental Dominions of the Norman and Angevin Kings 
The Crusade of Richard i. . 
Plan of Chateau Gaillard ..... 

The Battle of Lewes ...... 

The Battle of Evesham ..... 

Wales and the March, showing the growth of the power of 

Llewelyn (1246-1267) ..... 

Wales and the March between the Conquest under Edward i. and 

the Union under Henry viii. .... 

English King's Dominion in France in the Thirteenth Century 
The Battle of Bannockburn ..... 
Northern England and Southern Scotland in the Fourteenth 

Century ....... 

The Cr6cy Campaign, 1346 ..... 

The Battle of Cre'cy . . . . 

The Battle of Poitiers ...... 

The English Dominions in France after the Treaties of Bretigni 

and Calais (1360) ...... 

Some forms of Mediseval Architecture 

The Agincourt Campaign ..... 

The Battle of Agincourt . . , . . 



PAGE 

23 

36 

37 



46 
67 
71 

lOI 

109 
121 

128 
132 

135 
172 

175 
176 

181 
190 
200 

210 
213 
214 
218 

220 
246 
264 
266 



France in 1429 . ••,»,, ^ 274 



xl 



:iST OF MAPS AND FLANS 



The Battle of Towton ..... 

England, 1377-1509, illustrating the Wars of the Eoses 

The French and Netherlandish Borders in the Sixteenth Century 

The Battle of Flodden 

Europe at the Time of Charles v. 

English Bishoprics under Henry viii. 

The Battle of Pinkie .... 

Scotland in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 

The Netherlands in the Beginning of the Seventeenth Century 

Voyages and Settlements of the Sixteenth Century 

The Course of the Spanish Armada .... 

Ireland under the Tudors ..... 

Ireland in the Seventeenth Century 

England and Wales during the Great Civil War — 

1. May, 1643 . o . . 

2. November, 1644 .... 
The Battle of Marston Moor .... 
The Battle of Naseby ..... 
The English Colonies in North America under Charles ii, 
The South of England, 1685-1689 . 
The Battle of Blenheim .... 
Europe in 1713 ..... 
Scotland and the North of England, illustrating the Jacobite 

Risings of 1689, 1715, and 1745-1746 
New England and Nev7 France, 1755-1783 . 
The Thirteen Colonies in 1765 
The Battle of Trafalgar 

Europe in 1810 . ". . . 

The Battle of Waterloo 
Europe after the Congress of Vienna (1815) . 
Map to illustrate the Industrial Revolution . 
The Neighbourhood of Sebastopol 
Egypt and the Sudan .... 

India in i906 ...... ^ 

South Africa in 1899 ...... 

Map of the European Countries engaged in the Great War 
Map of the Operations on the Western Front 
The British Empire in 1920 .... 



LIST OF GENEALOGICAL TABLES 



The Chief Northumbrian Kings 

The Danish Kings 

The House of Godwin .... 

The House of Leofric .... 

The Old English Kings of the House of Cerdic 

The Norman and Early Angevin Kings 

The Provencals and Savoyards 

The House of Lusignan 

The Earls of Gloucester 

The Last Welsh Princes 

The Scottish Kings, showing the Chief Claimants in 1290 

The French Kings of the Direct Capetian Line, showing Edward 

iii.'s claim .... 

The English Kings from John to Richard ii. 
The House of Lancaster, including the Beauforts 
The Valois Kings of France, and the Valois Dukes of Burgundy 
The House of York, including the Mortimers and Staffords 
The Nexdlles .... 
The Greys and Woodvilles 
Charles v. and the Hapsburg Kings of Spain 
The Howards and Boleyns 
The Dudleys .... 
The House of Tudor . 
The Cromwell Family 
The Spanish Succession, 1700 
The Stewart Kings in Scotland and England 
The Bourbon Kings of France 
The Buonaparte Family 
The Pitts and Grenvilles 
The House of Brunswick-Hanover . 



PAGE 

35 
6i 

65 
65 

72 

157 
163 
170 
171 
180 
187 

207 

254 
261 
269 
284 
294 
299 

325 
334 
358 
419 
472 
507 
534 
535 
616 

639 
640 



xli 



J 



TABLE OF KINGS AND QUEENS 



CHIEF KINGS OF NORTHUMBBIA 



iEthelfrith, 593-617 
Edwin, 627-6S3 . 
Oswald, 635-642 . 
Oswiu, 655-671 
Ecgfrith, 671-685 . 



PAGB 
27 

30-31 
31-32 
32-33 

35 



Penda, 626-655 . 

Ethelbald, 716-757 
Offa, 757-796 
Cenulf, 796-821 . 



CHIEF KINGS OF MERCIA 



31-34 
36 

36-37 
38 



CHIEF KINGS OF WESSEX 

Egbert, 802-839 ..... 
Ethelwulf, 839-858 .... 
Ethelbald, Ethelbert, and Ethelred, 858-871 . 
Alfred, 871-899 



39'40 
41 
43 

44-49 



THE OLD ENGLISH KINGS 



Edward the Elder, 899-924 
Athelstan, 924-940 
Edmund, 940-946 . 
Edred, 946-955 . 
Edwy, 955-959 
Edgar the Peaceful, 959-975 
Edward the Martyr, 975-978 
Ethelred the Unready, 978-1016 . 
Edmund Ironside, 1016 . 
Cnut, 1017-1035 . 
Harold Harefoot, 1035-1040 
Harthacnut, 1040-1042 . 
Edward the Confessor, 1042-1066 
Harold, son of Godwin, 1066 



50-51 
51-52 

52 
52-53 

53 
54-55 
55-56 
57-59 

59 
S9-6i 

61 

61 
62-66 
66-69 



xliii 



xliv 



TABLE OF KINGS AND QUEENS 



THE NORMAN KINGS 



WiUiam i., the Conqueror, 1066-1087 
William ii., Eufus, 1087-1100 . 
Hem-v I., 1100-1135 
Stephen, 1135-1154 



PAGE 

82-93 

94-101 

102-110 

111-115 



THE HOUSE OF ANJOU 



Henry 11., of Anjou, 1154-1189 
Richard i., 1189-1199 
John, 1199-1216 . 
Henry iii., 1216-1272 
Edward i., 1272-1307 
Edward 11., 1307-1327 
Edward in., 1327-1377 
Richard 11., 1377-1399 



I 16-130 
131-136 

137-135 

159-177 

178-197 

198-204^ 

205-227 

228-237 



THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER 



Henry iv., 1399-1413 
Henry v., 1413-1422 
Henrv vi., 1422-1461 

and 1470-1471 



255-260 
262-268 
270-283 
289-291 



THE 

Edward iv., 1461-1470 . 
and 1471-1488 
Edward v., 1483 . 
Richard in., 1483-1485 . 



HOUSE OF YORK 



285-289 
291-293 
295-296 
296-299 



THE HOUSE OF TUDOR 



Henrv vii., 1485-1509 
Henry viii., 1509-1547 
Edward vi., 1547-1558 
Mary, 1553-1558 . 
Elizabeth, 1558-1603 



308-316 

317-351 

352-360 

361-367 
368-407 



THE HOUSE OF STEWART 



James i., 1603-1625 
Charles i., 1625-1649 
The Commonwealth, 1649-1653 . 
and 1659-1660 . 
Oliver Cromwell, Protector, 1653-1658 
Richard Cromwell, Protector, 1658-1659 
Charles 11., 1660-1685 
James 11., 1685-1688 
William in., and Mary 11., 1689-16941 
William in., 1689-1702 . . f 

Anne, 1702-1714 . . . 



420-434 

435-461 
462-467 
470-472 
467-470 
470 
473-488 
489-495 
496-504 
504-510 
511-523 



TABLE OF KINGS AND QUEENS 



xlv 



THE HOUSE OF 



George i., 1714-1727 
George ii., 1727-1760 
George iii., 1760-1820 
George iv., 1820-1830 
WUliam iv., 1830-1837 
Victoria, 1837-1901 



THE HOUSE OF 



Edward vii., 1901-1910 
George v., 1910- 





PAGE 
. 536-545 




. 546-569 




. 570-625 




. 642-649 




. 650-656 


» • * 


» 657-694 


WINDSOR 




. 


. 728-730 


. 


• 740-765 



BOOK 1 

BRITAIN BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST 

{UP TO 1066) 

CHAPTER I 
PREHISTORIC AND CELTIC BRITAIN 

Chief Dates: 

? 330 B.C. Ths voyage cf Pytheas* 

1. Theue are few surviving written records of tlie doings of man in 
the British. Islands which are much earlier than the Christian era. 
Yet the modern sciences of geology, archaeology, and philology prove 
that these islands had been the dwelling-place of human beings for 
many centuries previous to that period. The earliest certain evidence 
of the existence of man in Britain is derived from 
the discovery of large numbers of rudely shaped flint li^hic Age" 
implements. Some of these have been found in the 
gravels of river drifts, and others in the caves where early man 
made his dwelling. A few skulls, discovered along with such primi- 
tive tools, show that the dwellers in this remote age were of a low 
intellectual type. Yet the survival of a rude but spirited drawing 
of a horse on a flat piece of bone indicates that these savages had 
the rudiments of an artistic sense. The age in which they lived is 
called the jpalseolithic, or old stone age. There is little proof that 
the men of this age had any connection with the later races which 
successively inhabited Britain. 

2. Many ages passed away, and more abundant evidence is found 
of the existence of man in Britain. We pass from the palaBolithic 
to the neolithic, or new stone age, where the roughly 
fashioned tools of the primitive race were replaced by m^jg ^^oq 
more carefully constructed implements of smooth 
poKshed store. Such neolithic tools include arrow-heads, sharp 
enough to transfix an enemy, axe-heads called celtsy scrapers, knives, 

B 



:2 PREHISTORIC AND CELTIC BRITAIN 

dress-fasteners, and saws. The care of tlie men of tliis period for 
their dead is indicated hj the solidly built 'barrows of long oval 
shape, wherein huge stones, j)ned up to form a sepulchral chamber 
for a whole clan, were then covered in with great mounds of 
earth. Numerous remains of the dead found in these resting- 
places suggest that the men of the new stone age were short in 
stature, swarthy in complexion, and had long* narrow skulls of the 
type called doliclioce'plialic. To these people has been 
Iberians sometimes g'iven the name of J6erzaws, because they have 

been thought akia to the Basques, the original inhabi- 
tants of Iberia or Spain, and some philologists have believed that a 
few words of their tongue still lurk in some of our most ancient 
pla(»e-names. However these things may be, there is good reason 
to believe that the blood of this ancient race still flows in the veins 
of many of those now dwelling in our land. 

3. The Iberian inhabitants of Britain were idtimately attacked 
by a stronger and more ing*enious race called the Celts. This 
The Celt people belonged to the great Aryan family, whose- 

lang'uage was the origin of nearly all the civilized 
tongues of Europe, and of those of a considerable part of western 
Asia. Their physical characteristics were very different from those 
of their short and swarthy predecessors. They were tall, fair- 
skinned, with red or yellow hair, and their skulls were broader, 
shorter, and more highly developed, belonging to the type called 
hrachy cephalic. They came to Britain in two great waves of migra- 
tion. The earlier Celtic wave deposited in our islands the races 
called Goidelic, or Gaelic, which are now represented 
Gofdels. ^^ *^® Irish, the Scottish Highlanders, and the Manx- 

men. The second migration was that of the Brytlionio 
peoples, who were the ancestors of the Britons, afterwards called 
The *^^ Welsh, as well as of the Bretons of Brittany and 

Brythons. *^® Cornishmen. In each case the incoming race took 
possession of the richer and more fertile southern and 
eastern parts of our island, and drove the previous inhabitants inta 
the mountains of the west and north. The Goidels forced the 
Iberians back into these regions, and were then in their turn pushed 
westwards and northwards by the incoming Britons. By the time 
that our real knowledge begins, the Britons had occupied the whole 
of the south and east, and the mass of the Goidels had been driven 
over sea to Ireland, and to the barren mountains of the north be- 
yond the Forth and the Clyde. There was stiU, however, a strong 
Goidelic element along the western coasts of southern Britain 



PREHISTORIC AND CELTIC BRITAIN 3 

especiallT in the south-west peninsula, which now makes Cornwall 
and Devonshire, in south Wales, and in the lands round the 
Solway. 

4. It is to these western and northern lands that we must look 
if we would study the older populations of the British islands. 
The Goidels, when driven into the west, seem to have become 
amalgamated with the Iberians whom they had earlier pushed into 
those regions. The result of this was the development ,^, amal- 
there of two physical types which have survived to our gamation of 
own days. The incoming Celt is still represented Iberians 

in Ireland, Wales, and the Scottish Highlands by 
occasional tail, fair men ; but the most usual type in those districts 
is that of a short, dark-haired, dark-complexioned race, which is 
probably largely derived from the blood of the pre- Celtic inhabi- 
tants of our land. But for both types alike, the Celtic language 
and the Celtic institutions became universal. There was, and is, 
however, a great difference between the G-oidelic speech of the 
earlier Celtic migration, still spoken by some of the Irish, Manx, 
and Scottish Highlanders, and the Brythonic tongue of the later 
immigrants, stiU surviving in Welsh and Breton, and, tiU the nine- 
teenth century, in Cornish. 

5. Civilization now steadily progressed, though it is almost im- 
possible to say for certain whether the next great steps forward were 
the work of the earlier or of the later race. The people's increasing 
care for the dead led them to erect huge circles of great stones, each 
resembling the stone chamber of the barrow, stripped of its mound 
of earth, and piled up in magnificent order in mighty 
megaUtMc monuments. Of these, Avebury in northern monuments. 
Wiltshire, and Stonehenge on Salisbury plain, are the 

most famous examples. After the coming of the Celts the fashion 
of burial changed. Instead of the long barrow, destined to receive 
the remains of many warriors, short round harroivs, each the grave 
of a particular chieftain or of his kin, became so usual as to be ex- 
tremely numerous. In these were deposited the bodies, or some- 
times the burnt ashes, of the dead, and along mth them were put 
implements of stone and bronze, ornaments of gold, jet, amber, 
and glass, and pottery, made by hand, and unglazed, but rudely 
ornamented, and polished by hard rubbing. 

6. When this stage had been attained, the stone The Bronze 
age was over, and the period was reached when the andiron 
use of metals was known. This marked an enor- ^®^* 
mous advance of civilization. First came the bronze age, which 



4 PREHISTORIC AND CELTIC BRITAIN 

was ultimately succeeded by the iron age, wliicli has been going on 
ever since. The Goidel came to Britain in the age of bronze, 
and at the beginning of the iron age the Britons of the newer 
Celtic migration had become the masters of the southern part of 
our island, to which they had given the name of Britain. 

7. The Celts were the first inhabitants of our island to attain 
a respectable level of civilization. They wore clothes, used metal 

weapons, and delighted in gold and glass ornaments. 
^.^r|7 ^^y^'^^ They tilled the ground, opened up tin and lead mines, 

and began to trade with their neighbours. They were 
brave, high-spirited, and enterprising ; had a real love of beautiful 
things, and delighted in war and battle. They were S]3lit up into 
different tribes, each of which had its own king, though occasionally 
several tribes would join together under a common king, especially 
in times of danger. The Celts were fickle and quarrelsome, and 
seldom remained permanently under any other ruler than the 
chief of their otu tribe or clan. The g-entry went to battle in war- 
chariots, drawn by horses, which they managed with extraordinary 
skiU. They protected themselves by bronze helmets and body 
armour, often beautifully enriched by ornament. Their weapons 
were the sword, the buckler, the dart, and the axe. The Celts wor- 
shipped many gods, and sought to propitiate them by human sacri- 
fices. They held in great honour their priests, who were called 
Druids, and who also were the poets, prophets, and judges of the 
people. The chief wealth of the nation lay in their flocks and 
herds, and the population lived for the most part in scattered home- 
steads. They erected, however, as refuges in times of war, great 
earthworks called duns. Favourite sites for these fortresses were 
the summits of high hills, from which they could overlook the 
countryside. The majority of the Britons lived upon the uplands, 
as the river valleys were swampy, unhealthy, and hard to cultivate ; 
but some of them were fishermen or watermen, like the dwellers 
in the lake villages discovered near Glastonbury. There was 
enough intercourse between tribe and tribe for rough trackways to 
be marked out over the downs and hiUs from one settlement to 
another. 

8. Though the Driiids composed verses, wherein they com- 
memorated the deeds of great men, and set forth the laws and 
The voyage wisdom of their ancestors, the Britons had no books, 
fsso B C^^' ^^ ^^^^ ^^ account of them from their own point 

of view has been handed down to us. The earliest 
information that we have of the Britons comes from the travellers' 



PREHISTORIC AND CELTIC BRITAIN 5 

tales of Greek explorers from, tke Mediterranean. Somewhere 
about 330 B.C., some merchants of the G-reek colony of Massilia 
(now called Marseilles), in the south of Gaul, sent a mathematician 
named Pytheas to explore the lands on the Atlantic coast of 
Europe in the hope of opening up a trading* connection with them. 
Among other countries Pytheas visited Britain, sailing through the 
Channel and all up the eastern coast, and setting down his observa- 
tions of the country and its people in writings of which, unluckily, 
only fragments have come down to us. From the voyage of 
Pytheas a trading connection between Britain and the commercial 
cities of the Mediterranean was oi^ened up, which soon became 
important. There were also close dealings between the Britons 
and their Celtic kinsmen the Gauls, their nearest continental neigh- 
bours. Many Gauls settled in southern Britain, and still further 
raised its standard of refinement. The tin, lead, amber, and pearls 
of the Britons found a ready market in cities like Massilia, and by 
this means some vague knowledge of the existence of Britain 
became spread among civilized people. So active did commerce 
become that the Britons struck coins of gold and tin, which were 
rudely fashioned after the models of the Greek monies of the 
period. So intercourse increased and civilization grew until, nearly 
three hundred years after the voyage of Pytheas, the advance 
of the E;0man Empire brought Britain into the fuller light of 
history. 



CHAPTER II 
ROMAN BRITAIN (55 B.C.-449 A.D.) 

Chief Dates : 

55-54 B.C. Julius Caesar's expeditions to Britain. 

43 A.D. Claudius begins the Roman conquest of Britain. 

78-85. Government of Agricola. 

122. Hadrian's Wall built. , 

297. Diocletian reorganizes the British provinces. 

410. Withdrawal of the Roman legions. 

1. In the generations preceding tlie Cliristian era tlie Romans 
establislied their dominion over the whole of the lands surrounding 
the Mediterranean, the centre of the civilization of 
Julius ^ ^-j^g ancient world. The last step of this > conquest 

Expedition was the snhjngation of Gaul by Gains Julius Caesar, 
to Britain, between 58 and 50 B.C. Brought by his triumphant 
progress to the shores of the Channel, Caesar learnt 
that the Britons had afforded refuge to the fugitives from his arms 
in Gaul, and believed that their sympathy with their continental 
brethren would make it harder for the Komans to keep Gaul 
quiet. Accordingly he resolved to teach the Britons the might 
of the Roman power, and in 55 B.C. he led a small expedition 
over the straits of Dover, and successfully landed it in Kent, 
despite the vigorous resistance which the Britons offered to his 
disembarkation. Csesar found, however, that the Britons were 
stronger than he thought, and that he had not brought enough 
troops to accomplish anything great ag-ainst them. For the few 
weeks that he remained in Britain, he did not venture far from 
the coast. Before long he returned to Gaul, convinced that he 
must wipe out his failure by conducting a stronger army to England 
as soon as he could. 

2. Next year, 54 B.C., Caesar landed in Britain for the second 
time. He then took with him more than twice as many soldiers as 
on the previous occasion. Having established a camp on the coast, 
6 ' 



35 B.C.] ROMAN BRITAIN 7 

lie inarched boldly into tlie interior. He was opposed by Cassivel- 
launus, king" of the tribes dwelling* on the north bank of the 
Thames. The light-armed Britons shrunk from a 
pitched battle with the Romans, and failed to prevent Julius ^ 
them from forcing* their passag'e over the Thames, second Ex- 
But their swift war-chariots hnug upon the Roman pedition to 
line of march, threatened to destroy Ctesar's camp on 54 g^c'' 
the coast, and prevented him from winning any very 
striking triumphs. However, some of the British tribes were jealous 
of Cassivellaunus. Conspicuous among" these were the Trinovantes, 
his eastern neighbours, dwelling in what is now Essex. This tribe 
sent envoys to Caesar, and submitted to him. Alarmed at this 
•defection, Cassivellaunus also made his peace with the Roman 
general, and agreed not to disturb the Trinovantes. Some of the 
tribes promised to yield up hostages and to pay tribute to the 
Romans. Thereupon Caesar went back to the continent. He had 
not even attempted to conquer Britain, but he had taught the 
Britons a lesson, and had prevented them from harming the 
Roman power in Gaul. The most enduring result of Csesar's visits 
is to be found in the description of Britain and the Britons which 
he wrote in his famous Commentaries. This is the first full written 
account of our island that has come down to us. With it the 
continuous history of oia* land begins. 

3. For ninety years after Caesar's landing no Roman troops were 
seen in Britain. Increased commerce followed upon the greater 
knowledg-e which Romans and Britons now had of 

«ach other. The Trinovantes, who remained true to Britain, 
the Roman connection, profited by it to make them- 54 B.C.— 
■selves masters of most of south-eastern Britain. Their * ' 

power came to a head under their king Cunobelinus, the Cymbeline 
of Shakespeare and romance. He struck coins which closely 
imitated those of the contemporary Romans, made Camulodunum 
(Colchester) his capital, and felt liimseK strong enough to throw off 
Roman control. One of his brothers, disgusted at being supplanted, 
appealed to the Romans for help, but his valiant son Caractacus 
continued his policy after his death. Thus strained relations en- 
sued between the Romans and the Trinovantes. The promised 
tribute was not paid ; Gaulish rebels were encouraged, and Gaulish 
fugitives from Roman rule received once more a welcome. 

4. The renewed hostility of the Britons to Rome convinced the 
Emperor Claudius that the only way of making Gaul secure was 
hj conquering Britain. Accordingly, in 43 a.d., Claudius sent 



8 ROMAN BRITAIN, [43- 

a strong army to the island, under Aulus Plautins. With his 
landing* the systematic Roman conquest of Britain 
conquest of began. Plautins soon made such progress that Claudius 
Britain. himseK visited the country, and witnessed his soldiers 

taking by storm Caractacus' stronghold of Camulodunum, which 
soon became a Roman colony — the first in Britain. 
Plautius, When Plautius returned to Rome in 47, he had made 
43-47 A.D. liimself master of the south and midlands as far as 
the Humber and the Severn. The next governor, Ostorius Scapula 
(47-52), strove to subdue the Silures and Ordovices, 
Scapula, the fierce tribes that dwelt in the hills of southern and 
47-52. central Wales, among whom Caractacus found a refuge 

after the conquest of his own district. The Roman general defeated 
Caractacus in a pitched battle, and forced him to flee northwards 
to the Brigantes of the modern Yorkshire. Surrendered by these 
to the Romans, the British king was led in triumi)h through Rome. 
His brave and frank bearing won the favour of Claudius, who per- 
mitted liim to end his days in honourable retirement. But the 
conquest of the Welsh hills was not lasting, and all the Romans 
could do was to establish a ring of border garrisons at Deva 
(Chester), Yiroconium (Wroxeter), and Isca Silurum (Caerleon-on- 
TJsk), whereby the wild mountaineers were restrained. 

5. The Roman conquest of Britain was further advanced by 
the governor, Suetonius Paullinus (59-62), who in 61 completed 
Suetonius ^^® subjugation of the hill-tribes of the west by the 
Paullinus, reduction of Mona or Anglesey, the last refuge of 
59-62. j^^ Druids. A sanguinary insurrection of the Iceni, 

the clan inhabiting what is now l!Torfolk and Suffolk, recalled 
Paullinus. The Icenian King, Prasutagos, who had ruled under 
Roman over-lordship, made the Emperor his co-heir, jointly with 
his two daughters. On his death the Romans took possession of 
his lands, brutally ill-treated his daug'hters, and cruelly scourged his 
widow, Boudicca (Boadicea), who strove to maintain their rights. 
The indignant tribesmen took advantage of the governor's absence 
to rise in revolt. Camulodunum was stormed, and all the Romans 
within it put to the sword. A like fate befell Yerulamium (St. 
Albans), the seat of Roman government, andLondinium (London), 
the chief commercial centre of Britain. The legion that held the 
northern frontier hurried southwards, but was cut to pieces by the 
Iceni in the open field. At last Paullinus, fresh from his triumph 
at Mona, marched eastward at the head of the strong force which 
had held down the disturbed western frontier. Defeated in a 



-122.] ROMAN BR IT Am 9 

pitched battle, Boudicca ayoided captivity and shame by drinking^ 
off a bowl of j)oison. The suppression of the rebellion completed 
the reduction of aU Britain south of the Humber and east of the 
Dee and TJsk. But the mountaineers of what is now called Wales 
took advantage of Paullinus' withdrawal to renew their freedom, 
and for many years the Roman advance northwards and westwards 
was stayed. 

6. The next forward movement was under Julius Ag-ricola, a 
famous statesman and g'eneral, who was governor of Britain from 
78 to 85. Agricola's son-in-law, the famous liistorian, juHus 
Tacitus, wrote a life of his father-in-law in such detail Agrieola, 
that we learn more of his doings in Britain than of '°"°^* 
those of any commander since Julius Caesar. Agricola's first 
military exploit was to comjDlete the subjugation of the hill-tribes 
of the west. Thereupon he turned his arms northwards and sub- 
dued the fierce Brigantes, establishing a new camp at Eburacum 
(York), wliich soon became the chief centre of the Roman power. 
Within the next few years he seems to have advanced still further 
northwards, until he found a natural barrier in the narrow isthmus 
which separates the Firth of Forth and Clyde, where he erected a 
line of forts. iN^ot contented with this, Agricola advanced beyond 
this line into the mountains of northern Scotland, whose wild in- 
habitants, called then the Caledonians, opposed him vigorously 
under their chieftain Galgacus. At last, in 84, Agricola won a 
victory over Galgacus at an unknown place called Mons Graupius. 
After this he circumnavigated the north coast of Scotland with a 
fleet, and even talked of conquering Ireland. !N^ext year, however, 
he was recalled, and his successors took up a less enterxjrising 
policy. Even more important than Agricola's victories were the 
efforts he made to civilize the Britons and spread Roman fasliions 
among them. The sons of the chieftains learned to sj)eak Latin, 
adopted the Roman dress, and followed their conquerors' habits of 
Hfe. 

7. South Britain remained hard to hold. A revolt annihilated 
the legion stationed at York, and about 122 the wise Emperor 
Hadrian, abandoning the northern regions, which ^j^^ ^.^^ 
Agricola had claimed as part of the province, erected Roman 

a solid wall of stone, fortified by frequent forts, to walls, 
form a scientific frontier for the region solidly held by the 
Romans. The line chosen for this purpose ran from the mouth 
of the Solway to the mouth of the Tyne — roughly speaking, from 
Carlisle to Newcastle — a distance of more than seventy miles. If 



lO 



ROMAN BRITAIN , [i43' 



the still narrower frontier-line from Clyde to Forth were too 
remote to be lield witli safety, tlie limits thus chosen were the best 
that could be found. After nearly seventeen centuries the sub- 
stantial remains of this great work, stretching- across the high hills 
that separate the yaUeys of the Tyne and the Solway, still con- 
stitute by far the most majestic memorial of the E,oman power 
in Britain. In 143, LoEius TJrbicus, the governor of Britain 
under the Emperor Antoninus Pius, went back to the limits once 
conquered by Agricola, and erected a new boundary wall between 
the Forth and the Clyde. Built of sods laid on a basement of stone, 
the northern wall of Antoninus was a much less solid structure than 
the wall of Hadrian. It soon became unimportant, as the Romans 
made few attempts to occupy the barren moorlands that take 
up most of the region between the two walls. Occasionally the old 
aggressive spirit revived, and notably between 208 and 211, when 
the able Emperor Septimius Severus spent four years in Britain, 
and, like Agricola, waged fresh campaigns against the Caledonians. 
On his death, at Eburacum, the Roman energies relapsed, and, thus 
the wall of Hadrian became the permanent frontier of Roman 
Britain. 

8. Roman rule, thus established by Agricola and Hadrian, 
lasted in Britain for more than three hundred years. At first 
Roman Roman Britain consisted of a single ^province, ruled, 

divisions of like all the frontier districts, by a legate of the 
Bntam. Emperor, Severus divided the country into two 

provinces, called Upper and Lower Britain (Britannia Superior 
and Britannia Inferior), whose boundaries are not at all clear. 
At last, the famous emperor, Diocletian, the second founder of the 
Roman Empire, included Britain, about 297, in his general scheme 
for the reorganization of the provinces. The number of British 
provinces was increased to four, Britannia Prima, Britannia Se- 
cimda, Mavia Csesariensis, and Maxima Csesariensis. To these a 
fifth, Valentia, was afterwards added. We are almost entirely in tha 
dark as to the situation of these provinces. A special novelty of 
Diocletian's reforms was the bringing together of neighbouring 
provinces into larger administrative divisions, called Dioceses and 
Praetorian Prsefectures. AU British provinces were joined together 
in the diocese of Britain, ruled by a vicar, wMle the diocese of 
Britain was but a part of the great praetorian prsef ecture of the 
Gauls which extended over the whole of the west. This system 
lasted as long as the Roman power. 

9. The Roman occupation of Britain was mainly military. The 



-297.] ROMAN BRITAIN II 

land was strongly lield by a garrison of three legions, each, con- 
sisting of about 5000 regular troops, all Roman citizens. 
One legion, the Sixth, had its headcLiiarters at garrisonf^ 
Eburacum, while the Second was quartered at Isca 
Silurum, and the Twentieth at Deva, in positions which they had 
held from the first century onwards. Besides these regular troops, 
a large number of irregular auxiliaries garrisoned the wall of 
Hadrian and the detached forts of the north. Both legions and 
auxiliaries were largely recruited on the continent, and most 
Britons who wished to serve the emperor were drafted to fight 
upon the E,hine or the Danube. Well- constructed roads, paved 
with stone, ran straight from garrison to garrison, and also served 
as avenues of commerce. The most famous of the 
Eioman roads of Britain was the Watling Street, which p^^g" 
ran from the coast at Dubrae (Dover) to Londinium, 
and thence by Yerulamium to Yiroconium, from which point a 
branch went south to Isca, while the main road proceeded to Deva, 
where it sent a branch to Segontium. (Carnarvon). From Deva, 
Watling Street was continued eastwards to York, and thence to 
the frontier. The Ermine Street, the central part of the road that 
connected Eburacujn with Lindum (Lincoln), Camulodunum, and 
Londinium, was only less famous ; while the Watling- Street was 
crossed diagonally by a third g'reat artery, called the Fosse Way, 
which went from Lindum to Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter). A 
fourth road, named Aheman Street, connected Camulodunum and 
Verulamium with the watering-place of Aquas Sulis (Bath). 

10. Along the chief routes grew up walled towns, which, at 
least in the south and east, were not wholly military in character. 
Under the strong Roman peace, marshes were drained, j^Qj^an 
forests cleared, and commerce furthered. Britain be- civilization 
came one of the chief granaries of Europe, and its ^^ Britain, 
iron, tin, and lead mines were extensively developed. Salt-works 
were opened, and pottery and fine glass were made. Many Roman 
oflScials, soldiers, and traders spread the use of the Latin tongue, 
and, at least in the southern and eastern parts of the province, the 
upper classes among the Britons themselves learnt to talk Latin, 
and were proud to be considered as Romans. But the Romans 
never romanized Britain as they had romanized Graul. The best 
proof of this is the fact that the Celtic tongue continued to be 
spoken by the mass of the people, as is shown by its ccmtinuance 
in Wales to this day. In Graul, on the other hand, the use of Latin 
became universal, and quite displaced the ancient Gaulish language. 



12 



ROMAN BRITAIN [287. 



11. During tlie f ourtli century Christianity became the religion 
of the Romans, and Constantine, the first Christian emperor 

. „ (306-337), first took up the government of the Empire 

BHtish'"^"°" at Ehuracum, where his father had died. Even before 
Church. this there had been Christians in Britain, and during 

the last persecution of the Christian Church by the Emperor 
Diocletian (284-305), several British martyrs gave up their lives 
for the faith. The most famous of these was Alban, slain at 
Yerulamium, where in after years a church was erected in his 
honour that gave the Roman city its modern name of St. Albans. 
During the fourth century we know that there were bishops at 
Londinium, Lindum, and Eburacum,many churches and monasteries, 
and an active and vigorous ecclesiastical life. The British Church 
became strong enough to send out missionaries to other lands, of 
whom the most famous were St. Patrick, who completed the con- 
version of the Irish to the faith, and St. Ninian, who first taught 
the Caledonians, or Picts, the Christian religion. Britain even had 
a heretic of its own in Pelagius, who denied the doctrine of original 
sin, and made himself very famous all over the Roman world as the 
foe of St. Augustine, the great African father. Erom the British 
Church is directly descended the Welsh Church, and less directly 
the Churches of Ireland and Scotland. By its means civilization was 
extended into regions which, though inaccessible to the Roman 
arms, were brought by Roman missionaries into the Christian fold. 

12. Gradually the Roman Empire decayed, and Britain suffered 
much from its growing weakness. Towards the end of the third 

century the legions garrisoning distant provinces grew 
the Roman ^^"^ of hand, and, without reg'ard for the central power 
power in in Italy, made and unmade emperors of their own. 
PI am. Thus in 287, Carausius, a Roman admiral, allied him- 

self with bands of pirates, received the support of the soldiers, 
seized the government of Britain, and strove to make himself 

master of the whole Roman world. He conquered 
287-293, * P^^* of northern Gaul, but in 293 was slain by his 
and own cliief minister, Allectus, who ruled over Britain 

293-'296! imtil he was slain in 296. It was to put down such 

disorders that Diocletian carried out his reforms in 
the administration, and Constantine, succeeding after a time to 
Diocletian's power, continued his general policy, though he took up 
a different line as regards religion. The reforms of Diocletian and 
the recognition of Christianity by Constantine kept the Roman 
Empire together for a century longer. 



ROMAN BRITAIN 



13 




Emejy'Xrakcr sc. 



14 ROMAN BRITAIN [284- 

13. Fresli troubles soon arose, wMcli fell with special force on a 
remote province like Britain. Despite the frontier wall, bands of 

fierce Caledonians, by this time more often called Picts, 
Barbarian j^aided at their will the northern parts of the province, 
and the * Swarms of Irishmen, then generally called Scots, 
efforts to similarly plundered the western coasts and effected 
them off. large settlements in regions so wide apart as Cornwall, 

Wales, and G-alloway. An even worse danger came 
from the east, where swarms of pirates and adventurers from North 
Germany, called Saxons by Romans and Britons, devastated the 
coasts of the North Sea and Channel. To ward off these invaders 
the E-omans set up a new military organization. A new military 
officer was appointed, called Count of the Saxon Shore (Comes litoris 
Saxonici), whose special duty it was to protect the region specially 
liable to these invasions. A series of forts, stretching from the 
Wash to Sussex, formed the centres of the Homan defence against 
the pirates; and the majestic ruins of E,utupiae (Richborough) 
in Kent, Anderida (Pevensey) in Sussex, and Gariannonum (Burgh 
Castle) in Suffolk, show the solid strength of these last efforts to 
uphold the Roman power. At the same time the northern defence 
was reorganized, and the troops garrisoning* the wall of Hadrian 
were put under another high military officer, called the Duke of the 
Britains {Dux Britanniartim), while the legionary army in its camps 
was commanded by the Count of the Britains {Comes Britanniarum). 
AH these military changes date from the reign of Diocletian, and 
were parts of his great scheme for reinvigorating the empire. 

14. Early in the fifth century the Roman Empire upon the con- 
tinent was overrun by fierce German tribes, anxious to find new 

homes for themselves. The settlement of the Franks 
drawal o*f ^^ northern Gaul cut off Britain from the heart of the 
the Roman empire, and Rome and Italy itself were threatened. 
41^°^^^' With the Germans at the gates of Rome, it became 

impossible for the emperors to find the men and money 
necessary for keeping up their authority in a distant land Uke 
Britain. After 410, the year which saw the sack of Rome by 
^ Alaric the Goth, the Romans ceased to send officials and troops 
to Britain, Henceforth the Britons were left to look after them- 
selves, and their entreaties to the emperors to help them in their 
distress were necessarily disregarded. 

15. Roman rule had, however, lasted so long in Britain that 
the upper classes at least considered themselves Romans, and 
strove to carry on the government after the Roman fashion. Tc^ 



-449-] ROMAN BRITAIN 1 5 

tliem it did not seem tliat Britain liad ceased to "be Roman : but 
rather that they as Romans had to carry on Roman ride them- 
selves, without the help of the emperor or the other 
districts of the empire. It was soon found, however, j^j.^ uTtheir 
that the Britons were not. romanized enough to he own re- 
able to maintain the Roman system. The leaders did ^°!i^S^i' 

410-449 
not work together, and gradually the old Celtic tribal 

spirit revived in a fashion that made united action and organized 
government very difficult. 

16. Before long southern Britain began to split up into little 
tribal states, and this break up of unity made it possible for the^ 
barbarians, who had been withstood with difficulty all .pj^^ Piets 
through the previous century, to carry everything Sects, and 
before them. The Picts crossed the Roman wall, and Saxons, 
plundered and raided as they would. The Scots from Ireland 
established themselves along the west coast, and besides other 
settlements, effected so large a conquest of the western Highlands 
and islands outside the northern limits of the old provinces that 
a new Scotland grew up on British soil. Even more dangerous 
were the incursions of the Saxon invaders in the east. These were 
no longer simply plunderers, but, like the Franks and Goths on 
the continent, wished to establish new homes for themselves in 
Britain. Before their constant incursions the Britons were 
gradually forced to give way. Within forty years of the with- 
drawal of the last Roman governors, the process of German 
conquest had begun. 

17. The barbarian conquest went on gradually for about » 

century and a half, and by the end of it nearly every trace of 

Roman influence was removed. The ruins of Roman t,„„^„„„„,. 

,.,.,,. , ,.,, Permanent 

towns, villas, churches, and public buildings ; the still results of 

abiding lines of the network of Roman roads ; the con- Roman rule 
tinuance of the Christian faith among the free Britons ; 
a few Roman words still surviving in the language of the Celtic- 
speaking Britons, and a few place-names (such as street from strata) 
among their Teutonic supplanters, were almost all that there wa& 
to prove the abiding traces of the great conquering people which 
had first brought our island into relation wiih the main stream of 
ancient civilization. 



CHAPTER III 

THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF SOUTHERN 
BRITAIN (449-607) 

Chief Dates : 

449. Jutes established in Kent. 
516. Battle of Mount Badon. 
577. Battle of Deorham. 
607. Battle of Chester. 

1. The Teutonic invaders, who began to set np new homes for 

themselves in Britain after the middle of the fifth century, came 

. from northern Grermany. Their original homes were 

conquest of along the coasts of the North Sea, the lower courses 

Southern of the Elhe and Weser, and the isthmus that connects 

am. ^-j^^ Danish peninsula with Gr'ermany. Though all 

were very simiHar in their language and manners, they were divided 

into three different trihes — the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. 

Of these the Jutes were the least important, though 

they were the first to settle in our island. They are 

generally said to have come from Jutland, the Danish peninsula, 

which used to he explained as meaning the land of the Jutes. 

But there are difficulties in the way of accepting this view, and 

some people now helieve that the Jutes came from the lower 

^^ ^ Weser, to the west of the other colonizers of Britain. 

The Saxons, rm o n ,-, ■, -,-,, 

Ihe baxons came from the lower Elbe, and were so 

numerous a group of tribes that before long nearly all the peoples 
of North Germany were called Saxons. The Angles 
AnglS! ^^^^^ *^ *^^ north of the Saxons, in the region now 

called Holstein. So many of them crossed over to 
Britain that their name soon disappeared from Germany altogether. 
2. Each of the invading tribes included many small states, ruled 
by petty kings or by elected magistrates, called aldermen. The new- 
comers had no common name and no common interests. Each little 
group lived in a village apart from their neighbours, and all of them 
were very warlike, fierce, and energetic. They had dwelt farther 
16 



449 ] ENGLISH CONQ VEST OF SO UTHERN BRITAIN I / 

away from the Romans tlian the otlier barbarian invaders of the 
empire, and were therefore much less influenced by Roman civi- 
lization than nations like the Franks and the Goths, jj^g institu- 
For that reason they remained heathens, worshipping tions of the 
Woden, Thor, and the other battle-loving gods of the Invaders, 
old Germans. They had little of the respect for the Roman 
Empire which made the Teutonic conquerors of Gaul and Italy eager 
to be recognized by the emperors, and quick to learn many of the 
Roman ways. It resulted from this that they made a much cleaner 
sweep of Roman institutions than did their brethren on the conti- 
nent, and that the more since the Britons fought against them more 
vigorously and for a longer time than the Romans of Gaul or Italy 
against their invaders. Yet their conquest of Britain is but a part 
of that general movement called the Invasion of the Barharians, 
or the Wandering of the Nations, which everywhere broke down the 
Roman power in western Europe. In fact, this was done more 
completely in Britain than anywhere else. 

3. The invaders of Britain had no common name for themselves. 
Since the fourth century the Romans and Britons had called them 
all Saxons, and to this day the Celtic peoples of the ^j^^ beein- 
land, the Welsh, the Irish, and the Highland Scots, nings of 
still continue the Roman custom in their own tongues. England. 
But when the invaders had settled in Britain, and had begun to find 
the need of a common word to describe them all, they used the 
word Angle as a general name. Angle is only another form of 
English, and as this has remained ever since the name of all the 
new settlers and their descendants, it is perhaps better for us to 
caU them English from the first. They are, however, sometimes 
styled the Anglo-Saxons — that is, the people formed by the union 
of the Angles and Saxons. For convenience' sake we shall use 
the word "English" in this broader sense, and keep the term 
" Angle " for the tribes who shared with the Jutes and Saxons in 
the conquest of Britain. The parts of Britain in which the new- 
comers, whether Ang-le, Jute, or Saxon, settled, were henceforth 
England — that is, land of the English — and they were the fore- 
fathers of most modern Englislimen. As time went on, however, 
many people of British descent began to speak the English tongue 
and regard themselves as English ; and nowadays a great many 
Englishmen are in no wise descended from the old English. 

5. We know very little of the fashion in which the English 
tribes came to Britain. There are famous legends of some aspects 
of the conquest, but it is impossible to say whether they are true 

c 



1 8 ENGLISH CONQ UEST OF SO UTHERN BRITAIN [449- 

or not, as they are first told many hundred years after the event. 
There is a well-known story of the first settlement of the new- 
comers in Britain. Yortigern, one of the British kings, we are 
told, followed the fashion of the E,omans of the continent, who 
called in German warriors to help them to fight against their 
enemies. Attracted by the high pay that he offered, a tribe of 
The Jutes Jii'^es, headed by their dukes, the brothers Hengist 
in Kent, 449, and Horsa, came to the aid of Yortigern against 

and the Isle picts and Scots. But when thev had done their work, 
of Wififht " 

instead of going home, they resolved to settle in the 

land of the Britons. In 449 they chased away the Britons, and 
established themselves in Kent, which thus became the first English, 
settlement in Britain. Before long Kent became a kingdom, and 
Hengist and Horsa were its first kings. Some years later another 
Jutish settlement was effected in the Isle of Wight and on the south 
coast of what is now called Hampshire. These were the only 
Jutish conquests, and the very name of Jute was soon forgotten. 
Though Kent long remained a separate kingdom, the Jutes of 
Wight became absorbed in the larger population of Saxon settlers 
who established themselves all around them. 

5. The Saxons conquered and settled southern and south-eastern 
Britain. The first Saxon settlement was made in 477, when a chief- 
tain named ^lle set up the kingdom of Sussex — that 
settlements. ^^' S*^'^!"^^ Saxony — in the district that is represented 
by the later county of the name. A very famous 
incident of file's conquest was the storming of the old Roman 
fortress of Anderida (Pevensey), one of the strongholds set up 
in the fourth century to protect the south coast from the 
Sussex 477 ^^-^^^ pirates. At last it was to succumb to the fierce 
assaults of their descendants. Before long, ^lle and 
his men had set up new homes for themselves in the land of their 
choice. The great and pathless oak forest of the Weald cut them: 
off from the Jutes, who settled to the east and west, and from 
other Saxon tribes that later sailed up the Thames and established 
Surrey !^® "^**^® kingdom of Siirrey to their north. A more 

important conquest began in 495, when the Saxon 
chiefs, Cerdic and his son Cynric, landed at the head of Southampton 
water and began the kingdom of Wessex, or West Saxony. This 
Wessex ^^.^ originally confined to part of what is now Hamp- 

495. ' ^^i^®' l»\^* it gradually extended its limits, absorbing 
the Jutish kingdom of Wight and the Saxon kingdom 
of Surrey, and gaining stiU greater advantages at the expense o£ 



-547-1 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF SOUTHERN BRITAIN I9 

flie Britons of the upper Thames and lower Severn valleys and of 
the regions of downs and hills that stretches from Hampshire west- 
wards. Thus, unlike Kent and Sussex, which remained in their 
orig-inal limits, the history of "Wessex is from the beginning* a 
history of constant expansion. 

6. Other Saxon kingdoms were established on the eastern coast 
of England. The East Saxons set up the kingdom of Essex, and 
the Middle Saxons that of Middlesex, a petty state 

that owed its sole importance to containing within Middlesex, 
its limits the great trading city of London, whose 
commercial prosperity was checked rather than destroyed by the 
wave of barbarian conquest. Ultimately, however, Middlesex 
became absorbed in Essex, just as its southern neighbour, Surrey, 
was swallowed up in "Wessex. Here the Saxon invasion was stayed. 

7. The concjLuest of the east, the midlands, and the north was 
the work of the Angles. To the north of Essex, Anglian, swarms 
peopled the lands between the great fens of the Ouse 

valley and the coast of the North Sea. This region JeUltSfJSs. 
became the kingdom of East Ancjlia, or East England, 
and was divided geographically into a northern and southern 
portion, whose names are preserved in the modern counties of 
Norfolk — ^that is, land of the North folk — and Suffolk, 
the land of the South folk. Other Anglian ba.nds made j^^lij^, 
their way up the Trent valley, and gradually set up a 
series of small states in Middle England, extending southwards 
from the Humber to the northern boundaries of the Saxon settle- 
ments in the Thames valley. The history of these districts is 
very obscure, and is not preserved, as in the Saxon lands further 
south, by the names and limits of the modern shires. Of the many 
Anglian kingdoms of the midlands one only survived, and ulti- 
mately absorbed all the others. This was the little Mereiaand 
kingdom of Mercia — that is, the March or boiuidary the midland 
land — set up in the upper Trent valley, and stretching kingdoms, 
over the rough hill-land of Cannock chase towards the middle Severn 
valley, where the Britons long held their own. North of the 
Humber two well-defined Anglian kingdoms grew up. 
These were Beira, or the southern kingdom, which jj^j^^ g^y^ 
roughly corresponds to the modern Yorkshire, and the 
more northerly state of Bemicia, which stretched along the east coast 
from the Tees to the Firth of Forth, which was founded, it is said, 
by Ida in 547. Both these kingdoms had as their western boun- 
dary tho wild uplands of the Pennine chain and its northern 



20 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF SOUTHERN BRITAIN [516- 

continnation, tlie Ettrick Forest. This tangle of hills and moors was 
difficult for the invaders to traverse, and long" protected the freedom 
of the Britons of the west coast between the Clyde and the Dee. 

8. It took nearly a hundred and fifty years before the English 
settlements were completely established. The Britons, who fought 

very stubbornly to protect their liberties, remembered 
isties of the so much of the Roman discipline and organization that 
English they remained formidable foes to a series of disorderly 

conquest, tribes, each consisting of a small number of warriors 
fighting for their own hands. The English brought over with them 
their wives and families, and aimed not simply at concLuering their 
enemies, but sought to establish new homes for themselves. They 
brought with them their Teutonic speech, the parent, of our English 
tongue. They preserved the manners, institutions, and religion 
which they had followed in their original homes in northern Germany. 

9. The best and bravest of the Britons withdrew before the 
English and joined their brethren, who still remained masters 

in the hills of the west. Such as remained in 
the Bp'fons ^^ ®^^^ ^^^ south, as slaves and dependants of the 

conquerors, gradually lost their ancient tongue and 
institutions, and became one with the invaders. It shows how 
thorough the conquest was that the Christian religion, professed 
by aU the Britons, was entirely rooted out in all the districts where 
the English established themselves. Luckily for the English, the 
Britons seldom acted together for any long time. The wiser 
Britons held fast to the Roman tradition of unity, and set up war- 
leaders who might take the place of the sometime Roman governors. 
The most famous of these was the great Celtic hero, King Arthur, 
Arthur and whose mighty victories stayed for a time the advance 
Mount of the English, and perhaps saved the Britons of the 

Badon, 516. ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^j^^.^, brethren of the east. The 

best known of Arthur's battles was fought at a place called Mons 
Badonicus or Mount Badon, in about 516. Its situation is quite 
uncertain, but it is most probably to be found somewhere in 
the south-west, possibly at Badbury in Dorsetshire. It seems 
that Arthur's triumph was over the West Saxons, whose 
advance was stayed for nearly sixty years. But the Britons only 
united when compelled to do so to meet the English attacks. 
They split up into little tribal states, and, if the English had not 
themselves also been disunited, the invaders could have probably 
driven their foes, into the sea. As it was, many of the more 
strenuous Britons scorned to live any longer in the land which 



-6o7.] ENGLISH CONQ VEST OF SO UTHERN BRITAIN 2 1 

they shared with, their Saxon enemies. There was so large an 
emigration of Britons to the G-aulish peninsula of Armorica. 
that that land obtained the new name of Brittany or -jj^g gj^j. 
Britain, and to this day a large part of the inhabitants gration to 
of this little Britain beyond the sea continue to ^^^'''-^^J'* 
speak a Celtic tongue, very similar to the Welsh or Cornish, which 
their forefathers took with them to G-aul when they fled from the 
Saxon conquerors. Their withdrawal made easier the work of the 
English, and it speaks well for the toughness of the British 
resistance that so much of the island remained in their hands. 

10. For about a century fresh swarms of English came to 
Britain from beyond sea. After that the migration ceased, but 
the stronger of the English kingdoms continued to jj^g gpitons 
advance westwards at the expense of the Britons. The become the 
English did not call the Britons by that name, but de- W^^^h. 
scribed them as the WeWi — that is, as the foreigners, or the speakers 
of a strange tongue. Gradually the Britons, who in the sixth 
century were still proud to call themselves Romans, took the 
name of the Cymry, or the Comrades, by which the Welsh are still 
known in their own language. A Welsh monk named Gildas, who 
lived in the sixth century, has written a gloomy picture of the state 
of Britain during the i)eriod of the English conquest. The heathen 
English were cruel and bloodthirsty ; but the Welsh were quarrel- 
some and divided, and Gildas regarded their defeat as the just 
punishment of their sins. 

11. The warfare between Welsh and English still went on, and 
at last the Welsh received a rude shock from two English victories, 
which cut the British territories into three parts, and ^j^ ^^ « 
destroyed any hopes of future Celtic unity. The the period 
West Saxons gradually made their way westward from °^ English 
their original settlement in Hampshire, . and in 577 

Ceawlin, the West Saxon king, won a great battle over the Welsh 
at Deorham (Dyrham), in Gloucestershire, which led to their 
conquest of the lower Severn valley. Thirty years after this (607) 
the Bernician king, ^theKrith, won a corresponding victory at 
Chester, which pushed forward the northern AngKan settlements 
to the Irish Channel, and transferred the lands between Kibble and 
Mersey from British to English hands. Up to these days the 
Welsh had ruled over the whole west from the Clyde to the 
English Channel. Henceforth they were cut up into three groups. 
Of these the northernmost was called Cunibria or Cumberland— 
that is, land of the Cymry or Welsh. This stretched from tjii 



22 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF SOUTHERN BRITAIN [607. 

Clyde, the nortliem limit of the Britons, to the Kibble, and was 
separated from Bernicia and Deira by the Pennine chain. The 
modern county of Ciunberland still preserves for a 
Cumbria. ^^^^ ^£ ^1^^ ,^^^^ ^^g ancient name. Enclosed within 
this region was a colony of Goidelic Picts, in the extreme south- 
west of the modern Scotland, which derived from its Goidelic 
inhabitants its name of Galloway, 

12. The central and chief British group of peoples is repre- 
sented by the modern Wales, and by a large stretch of land to the 
eastwards including the valley of the middle Severn, which has 

since become English by a slow process of conijuest 
OP a as. ^^^ absorption. SpHt up among several rival kings, 
this district lost, through its want of unity, some of the im- 
portance wliich it gained by its size and by the inaccessibility of 
its mountains. In early days the whole region was described as 

North Wales — ^that is, Wales north of the Bristol 

And West Channel. This was to distinguish it from West Wales, 
Wales. ® 

the country still held by the Britons in the south- 
west peninsula. Separated from North Wales by the West Saxon 
victory of Deorham, West Wales still included the whole of Corn- 
wall and Devonshire, and a good deal of Somerset. Both ia 
North and West Wales there were occasional colonies of Goidelic- 
speaking Scots or Irish, who have left memorials of this tongue in 
the Irish inscriptions, written in a character called Ogharriy found 
in many parts of Wales and Cornwall. 

13. Thus was the old Roman diocese of Britain unequally divided 
between the English and the Welsh. The great part of the district 
north of the Perth and Clyde was in the hands of the Picts — a race 
doubtless identical with the ancient Caledonians, and apparently 
The P'ets ^^^^^ ^P of Goidelic tribes with a large Iberian inter* 

mixture. But in the north-western parts of the 
modern Scotland the Picts had been driven out by immigrant 
Scots from Ireland, who had set up an independent kingdom of 
And Sects. ^^® ^aoU in the western Highlands and islands, 

running inland as far as the chain of hills called Brum- 
alhan, which forms the watershed of the eastern and western 
seas. Prom these the north-west of Britain first got the name 
of Scotland, or land of the Scots; but at first this term was 

Coluraba ^^^ ^^^^^ *^ ^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ fragment of the modern 

597. ' Scotland. Soon, however, the Scots began to influence 

the Picts. Up to the sixth century the Picts, alone 

of the Celts, still remained heathen ; but Columba, the greatest of 



ENGLISH CONQ VEST OF SO UTHERN BRITAIN 2 3 




EmeryWdlker so 



24 ENGLISH CONQUEST OF SOUTHERN BRITAIN [597- 

tlie Irish saints, settled down in a monastery in the little island of 
lona, among the British Scots, and devoted the rest of his Ufe, 
until his death in 597, to the conversion of the Picts. Two and a 
haK centui'ies after the Picts had learnt their faith from the Scots, 
they obtained a Scot for their king. In 844 Kenneth Mac Alpine 
(that is, son of Alpine), King of the Scots, succeeded through his 
Union of the mother to the Pictish kingdom heyond Drumalban. 
Picts and His successor continued to rule I^ictland as well as 
Scots. Scotland, and as they were Scots hy race, and the 

difference between the two peoples was not very great, Picts and 
Scots were gradually fused into one people. The result was that 
the whole of the population north of Forth and Clyde acquired 
the name of Scots, and their country was called Scotland. For 
many centui'ies, however, the Irish continued to be caUed Scots, 
until at last confusion was avoided by the term becoming gradually 
restricted to their brethren in northern Britain. 

14. By the end of the sixth century the British islands 
were settling down into sometliing like their modern divisions. 

There was an England, much smaller than modern 
of inglaiS, England, though extending further northwards to the 
Wales, Scot- Firth of Forth, and gradually making its way west- 
i^'^f ' T^ ward at the expense of the Welsh'. There was a Wales, 

much bigger than the modern Wales, but cut into 
three portions by the fights at Chester and Deorham, with the result 
that the largest of the three, represented by the modern Yf ales, 
became in a special sense the representative of the ancient Britons. 
There was a new Scotland, comprising the lands beyond Forth and 
Clyde, and Ireland, though still a la]id of Scots, became quite 
separated from it. 

15. In all these districts, Anglian and Saxon, British and 

GroideKc, the land was split up into many small states, constantly 

Wh E ff- ^^ ^^^ with each other, and filling* the country with 

land be- ceaseless confusion. While the Celtic states, owing to 

came the ti^e strength of the tribal system, seldom showed any 

stpongest. •/ ' J 

tendency to be drawn together, the English tribes, 

on the contrary, beg'an almost from tlie beg'inning to unite with 
each other, and so bring about the beginnings of greater unity. 
The Celts were Christians, and infinitely more civilized and culti- 
vated than their enemies ; but they lacked the jjolitical cai)acity and 
persistent energy which made the English stronger in building up 
a state. The' result was that supremacy fell more and more into 
English hands. While the struggles of Celtic chieftains resulted 



-844.1 ENGLISH CONQ UEST OF SO UTHERN BRITAIN 2 5 

iu nothing at all save bloodshed and confusion, the equally cruel 
fig-hting: between the English tribes led to the absorption oi the 
weaker into the stronger kingdoms, and so prepared the way for 
the growth of English unity. This tendency became the more 
active when the conversion of the English to Christianity gave 
them a common faith and a common Church organization. In the 
next chapter we shall see how the early steps towards English unity 
were made, and how the English became Christians. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE EARLY OVERLORDSHIPS AND THE 
CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH TO 
CHRISTIANITY (597-S2I). 

Chief Dates : 

597. Death of St. Columba and landing of St. Augustine. 

627. Conversion of Edwin. 

664. Synod of Whitby. 

668. Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury. 

685. Death of Ecgfrith. 

757. Death of Ethelbald of Mercia. 

796. Death of OfEa. 

821. Death of Cenulf. 

1. We liave seen how numerous were tlie kingdoms set up by the 
English who conc^uered southern Britain. The settlement was, 

however, hardly completed when a strong* tendency 
steps to- towards amalgamation set in among them. In all 

wards Eng- cases the union of kingdoms was due to conquest by a 
IS ni y. stronger and more vigorous king. It was rarely, how- 
ever, that such a monarch was able to effect a complete subjection 
of his weaker neighbours. In most instances he was content with 
forcing his defeated enemy to acknowledge his superiority, and 
perhaps to pay him tribute. Thus more freq^uent than downright 

conquests of one kingdom by another was the estabUsh- 
Q^g^jQPj^ ment of such overlordsMps on the part of a more 
ships of one vigorous state over feebler kingdoms. Of brief duration 
^mlSier^^ and indefinite meaning, these overlordships were of 

importance in preparing the way to more complete con- 
quest. By these processes the original kingdoms of the settlers 
were by the early part of the seventh century reduced to seven in 

number. These were the states long known as the 
Hept^arehy!^ ^^Ipt^^^^^^^V^ a word intended to mean a land divided 

into seven kingdoms. In reaKty, however, the " Hep- 

tarchic " states represent not the first but the second stage of the 
26 



655-] THE EARLY OVERLORDSHIPS 2 J 

history of the Englisli in Britain. Tliey were North.nm'bria, Mercia, 
Wessex, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, and Sussex, and among" tliem 
tlie first three were very mnch stronger than the last four. 

2. Northnmhria, or Northumberland — that is, the land north 
<?f the Humber — was formed by ^thelfrith, king of Bernicia 
(593-617), conquering his southern neighbours in 

Deira, and driving their king into exile. It was the The stronger 
great power gained by JEtheKrith after this victory Northumbria 
which enabled him to defeat the Welsh at Chester, and under 
add the lands between E<ibble and Dee to his kingdom. 593-6 17, ' 
But he had so much to do fighting' the Welsh and 
Scots that he had little leisure to concern himself with the affairs 
of his southern neighbours. 

3. In the south, Ceawlin, king of the West Saxons (560-593), 
played rather earlier a similar part to that of ^thelfrith in 
the north. Wessex had long been extending itself 

beyond its original scanty limits. It absorbed the under 
Jutish kingdom of Wight and the Saxon kingdom of Ceawlin, 
Surrey ; but its main advance was at the expense of - 9 • 
the Welsh. By this time the districts now comprised in Wiltshire, 
Berkshire, and Dorsetshire had been added to Cerdic's original 
kingdom. Moreover, for a time, Wessex crossed the middle and 
upper Thames, and extended into midland districts that finally 
became Mercian. The victory of Deorham made Gloucestershire 
and part of Somerset included within Wessex, so that Ceawlin 
is as much the creator of the later Wessex as ..Ethelfrith is of 
Northumbria. 

4. More than a generation after this, a similar process in the 
midlands created a third great English state in Mercia. Up to the 
days of its king, Penda (626-655), Mercia was only jviereia under 
a little Ang'lian king'dom in the upper Trent valley. Penda, 

By a series of successful wars, Penda destroyed the -655. 
power of nearly all the other Anglian monarchs in middle England. 
Moreover, he wrested from the West Saxons some of their conquests 
from the Welsh in the lower Severn valley, and took from the Nor- 
thumbrians a good deal of what ^theKrith had won at Chester. 
The result of his work was to create a greater Mercia that included 
the whole of middle England. So completely was this conquest 
effected that the very names and boundaries of the kingdoms 
conquered by Penda became almost forgotten. 

5. Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex became the three great 
English states ; but the little kingdoms of the south-east. East 



28 THE EARLY OVERLORDSHIPS [597- 

Anglia, Essex, Kent, and Sussex, were so well establislied and 
so clearly marked out by natural boundaries tliat they long 
The king- continued to maintain their individuality. Downright 
doms of the conquest was here extremely difficult, but the abler 
south-east, j^j^gg succeeded in turn in setting up an overlord- 
shij) over^ their neighbours. Sussex and Essex were too weak to 
accomplish anything, but one vigorous king gave to Kent, and 
another procured for East Anglia, a brief period of supremacy. 
Profiting by the confusion that fell over Wessex after Ceawlin's 
Ethelbept death, Ethelbert, king of the Kentishmen, defeated 
and Red- his West Saxon neighbours and ruled as overlord 
wald, 616. Q^gj. ^]^g kingdoms of the south-east. liis power is 
shown by the fact that he was the first English king who had 
any dealings with the continent, choosing as his wife. Bertha, the 
daughter of one of the Frankish kings ruling over Gaul. On 
Ethelbert's death in 616, his power passed to Eedwald, the king 
of the East Anglians. To Ceawlin, Ethelbert, and Redwald the 
name of Bretwalda, or ruler of the Britons, has sometimes been 
given by later writers. It has, of course, no appropriateness 
except in the case of the conqueror of the Britons at Deorham, but 
it shows the impression left by their power. . 

6. Though planted for a century and a half in a land once 
Christian, the English still remained heathens at the end of the 

sixth century. They scorned to accept the religion 
Church. ^° of the conquered Britons, and the "Welsh had no wish 

to share with their hated supplanters the benefits 
of their faith. Yet the Welsh were ardent Christians, and the 
Welsh Church attained the highest of its power and influence by 
this period. It was the great age of the Welsh saints, such as 
David, the founder of the bishopric of St. David's ; Daniel, first 
bishop of Bangor ; Dyvrig, bishop of Llandaff , and Kentigern, first 
bishop of Glasgow, then a British town, and afterwards the founder 
of the see called from his disciple and successor, St. Asaph. Even 
more flourishing was the state of the Church in Ireland, where 
Columba, the missionary of the Picts and the founder of the abbey 
of lona, was the greatest of a long catalogue of Irish saints. 
Celtic Britain was, however, so far cut off from the continent that 
it developed during these years a type of Christianity of its own, 
differing in some respects from the Church of the western world, 
which was attaining increased unity and vigour under the supre- 
macy of the popes or bishops of Rome. The Celtic Church took 
Httle heed of what the Roman Chui'ch was doing. It celebrated 



-6i6.] THE CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH 29 

the Easter feast according to a different calculation from tliat which 
was accepted on the continent. It was so much influenced by the 
monastic movement that the bishops of the Church, especially in 
Ireland, became in practice subordinate to the abbots, who, though 
simple priests, ruled over the great houses of religion that Celtic 
piety had established. Thus Columba, priest and abbot only, 
governed all the churches of the Scots of the Highlands and also 
over his converts the Picts. His death in 597 is doubly memorable 
because in that same year the first effort was made to- preach 
Chi-istianity to the English. 

7. Bertha, the wife of Ethelbert of Kent, was, like all the 
Franks, a Christian, and a Christian bishop went over with her to 
Kent as her chaplain. For his wife's use Ethelbert 

set apart a church, deserted since the English con- Ethe^b^^?^ 
quest, which still remained erect in the old Roman 
city of Durovernum, from which Ethelbert ruled over the Kentish- 
men, and which the English now called Canterbury — that is, the 
borough of the Kentishmen. But though tolerant to his wife's 
faith, he showed no disposition to embrace it. 

8. The power of Rome still counted for much, and the Roman 
Empire, after it had ceased to rule the West, still went on in the 
East, though the emperors had abandoned Italy, and Gregory the 
now lived at Constantinople. Their withdrawal made Great and 
the pope the greatest man in Rome, and by this time -A^^sustine. 
the influence of Rome in the West meant that of the Roman 
bishop even more than that of the emperor. It happened that 
one of the greatest of all the popes was ruling the Church while 
Ethelbert was king of Kent. This was Gregory i., or the Great, 
whose high character, strong will, and profound earnestness did 
much to extend permanently the influence of the Roman see over 
Christendom. Gregory still looked upon Britain as part of the 
Roman Empire, and was pained that a once Christian province had 
fallen largely into the hands of heathen barbarians. Accordingly 
he set Augustine, abbot of a Roman monastery which Gregory 
himself had founded, at the head of a band of monks, and in- 
structed them to make their way to Britain and preach the gospel 
to the English heathens. In 597 Augustine and his companions 
landed in Kent, at Ebbsfleet in Thanet, where it was believed that 
Hengist and Horsa had landed a century and a haK earlier. 
Ethelbert welcomed the missionaries, and allowed them to preach 
freely to all who chose to listen to them. Meanwhile the monks 
lived at Canterbury, hard by the king's court, and before long the 



30 THE EARLY OVERLORDSHIPS [597- 

example of their pious and nnselfisli lives induced Etlielbert and 
^ _ most of Ms subjects to receive baptism. After tbe 

sion of king's conversion Augustine crossed over to Gaul, 

Kent, 597, whence lie soon came back to England as arcbbisbop 
and Essex. ^^ ^^^ EngKsk Cliurcli. He built bis cathedral at 
Canterbury, wMcb, as the capital of the first Christian king among 
the English, remained ever after the chief bishopric of the Englisb 
Church. Before long- another bishopric was set up at Rochester, 
which,' as its name shows, was also an old Roman citj, and before 
long the new faith spread beyond Kent to the dependent kingdom 
of Essex, over which Ethelbert's influence was strong. The East 
Saxon bishopric was set up at London, the commercial capital of 
the land since Roman times. 

9. Before long the East Angles began to turn Christians also, 
but their king-, Redwald, though professing the Christian faith. 
The eonver- ^^^ continued to worship idols. Redwald was a strong 
sion of ruler, and after Ethelbert's death the overlordship of 
^*^rtlh' ^^^' s*^Ti'^^-6astern Britain passed over to liim. He gave 
supremacy shelter to Edwin, son of the king of Deira, whom, 
of Northum- ^thelfrith of Bernicia drove out of his home when 

^^^* he united the northern kingdoms with IN'orthumbria. 

.Slthelfrith went to war against Redwald when he refused to yield 
up the fugitive, but at a battle on the Idle, near Retford, .^thel- 
frith was slain. Thereupon, with Redwald's help, Edwin made 
himself king over all ISTorthumbria. He married the daughter of 
Ethelbert of Kent, whose name was Ethelburga. Being a Christian 
this lady took with her to her husband's court at York a 
Christian monk, called Paulinus, as her chaplain. Before long the 
influence of his wife and Paulinus prevailed over Edwin, and in 
627 the Northumbrian king received baptism from Paulinus, who 
was soon consecrated archbishop of York. In a short time most of 
Beginnings ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ over to the new faith. This triumph 
of the Nop- "^as the more important since the newly converted ruler 
overlordship ^"^^^ W^-^^^ a mighty warrior. When Redwald died, 
' Edwin became the strongest of the kings of the Eng- 
lish. Under him a more real overlordship over the lesser kingdoms | 
was set up than that which had prevailed under any earlier 
monarchs. To him and his two successors the title of Bretwalda 
was also sometimes given, 

10. Augustine was already dead, but Paulinus was one of his \ 
f oUowers, and his conversion of the Deirans was the greatest result l 
cf the mission which his master had led from Rome to England. 



-635-] THE CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH 3 1 

To liave done so much in so short a time might well seem to be 
a great success ; but Pope Gregory had formed even more ambi- 
tious schemes for Augustine than the good monk was 
able to carry out, Gregory expected Augustine to success of 
convert all the English, to make friends with the the Augus- 

British Christians, and to set up two archbishops and ^^^^^.^ 

mission 
twenty-four bishops, under whom the whole Chui-ch of 

Britain was to bS governed. But Augustine had only taught Chris- 
tianity to the little kingdoms of the south-east, and. though he met 
some of the Welsh bishops at a conference, he had been unable to 
establish friendly relations with them. They rejected his claims 
to be their superior, and Augustine, denouncing them as schismatics 
who stood outside the true Church, prophesied terrible disasters if 
they would not join with him in converting the English. The 
victory of the heathen ^thelfrith over the Welsh a few years later 
at Chester seemed to the Christians of Kent only a fulfilment of 
Augustine's prophecy. Under these circumstances there was no 
chance of carrying out Gregory's scheme for bringing all the 
Churches of Britain into one fold. 

11. Even in Kent and Essex many fell away from the faith 
after Augustine's death. The English converts found that the 
Christian missionaries wished them to g'ive up many Penda and 
of their old customs, and held up to their admiration the heathen 
humble and weak saints whom they despised as ^^^^'■^o^* 
useless for fighting. A great heathen reaction arose, and the old 
king of the Mercians, Penda, whose victories had made him master 
of central England, made himseK the champion of the grim gods 
of pagan Germany. The power of the Christian king, Edwin, had 
grown so great that aU his neighbours were afraid of him, and 
Penda hated Edwin both as a Christian and as the enemy of Mercia. 
Edwin had also won victories over the Welsh, and harried the 
Welsh king, Cadwallon. so much that he forgot his Christian faith, 
and made a league with the heathen Penda against the I^orthum- 
brians. It was the first time that Englishmen and Battle of 
Welshmen had fought on the same side, after nearly Heathfield, 
two centuries of bitter hostility. The combination 

was irresistible. In 633 Penda and Cadwallon defeated and slew 
Edwin at the battle of Heathfield, in southern Yorkshire. 

12. For a year Welsh and Mercians cruelly devas- Oswald of 
tated !N"orthumbria. Christianity was almost blotted Northum- 
out, and Paulinus fled to Kent, where he died bishop '''^' 

of the little see of Bochester. In 635, however, a saviour arose 



32 THE EARLY OVERLORDSHIPS [635- 

for the north in Oswald, the son of the mighty JEthelfrith, who, 
on Edwin's accession, had been driven into exile among the 
Scots of Britain. In a battle at Heavenfield, near the Roman wall, 
Oswald overthrew the British king, and henceforth reigned as king 
over the ISTorthnmbrians. Cadwallon was the last British king who 
was able to seriously check the course of the English conquest. After 
his death the Welsh of Cumbria were forced to accept Oswald as 
their lord. Thus, though Penda was still unsubdued, the son of 
^thelfrith succeeded to most of the power of his rival Edwin. 

13. Oswald was as good a Christian as Edwin, and, after his 
accession, the new faith was once more preached in !N"orthumbria. 
Aidan and -^^^ Oswald had learnt his religion after a different 
the Scottish fashion from that in which his predecessor had been 
mission. ^ taught. He had been instructed in the faith at 
lona, the great Scottish island monastery where the successor of 
Columba still ruled over the Churches of the north ; and when he 
became king, Scottish monks from lona came at his bidding into 
Northumbria, and took up the work laid down by the Roman mis- 
sionaries. Their chief, Aidan, became bishop of the U^orthumbrias, 
and set up his cathedral in the little island of Lindisf arne, off the 
coast of Bernicia. Before long his zeal and piety had won most 
of Bernicia to the Christian faith. 

14. The work of Oswald and Aidan was soon cut short. In 642 
there was a fresh war with the Mercians, and Penda slew Oswald 

at the battle f " Maserfield, near Oswestry. Again there 
Oswiu. ^^^ ^ period of terrible confusion in IN'orthumbria, 

but again a strong king was found in Oswald's brother 
Oswiu, who in 655 defeated and killed Penda at Winwood. On 
the Mercian's death the Northumbrian overlordship, which had 
gone on fitfully despite the victories of the heathen king, was 
established on a more solid basis than ever. It lasted for the rest 
of Oswiu's reign, and also for that of his son and successor, 
Ecgfrith. During this period the conversion of the English was 
completed, and the Church established on a firm and solid footing. 

15. Even during Penda's lifetime the Christian missionaries 
had no need to despair. Though no saint like Oswald, Oswiu was 
The final ^ ^^^^ friend of the Christians, and even in Mercia 
conversion the new religion had made such progress that in his 
of Nopthum- old age Penda had been compelled to tolerate it. 

Penda's son and successor was a Christian, and wel- 
comed the Scottish and ^Northumbrian missionaries that Oswiu 
sent to his people. The most famous of these was Ceadda, or 



-664.] THE CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH 33 

Cliad, who became famous as the apostle of Mercia and the patron 
saint of the Mercian bishopric at LichjS.eld, Though an Eng-lish- 
man, Chad had been brought up by Scottish monks, and thus was 
friendly to the customs of the Celtic Church. 

16. By this time the other English kingdoms had become 
Christian also. Some of them were converted by Scottish mis- 
sionaries ; others by Roman teachers from Kent or the p. _ 1 
continent. Thus East Anglia was won over by Eelix, conversiori 
a Burgundian; Wessex by Birinus, a Roman; while of the rest 
Cedd, a brother of Chad, had revived the waning 

faith of the East Saxons ; and WiKrid of Ripon, a Northumbrian 
monk who was an eager friend of the Roman usages, converted 
the South Saxons, the last Englishmen to give up their ancient 
gods. But there was no order or method in this piecemeal process 
of conversion. Each state had its own bishop, whether it was a 
great state like Mercia, or a little state like Sussex, The 
successor of Augustine at Canterbury, though still called arch- 
bishop, had small power outside Kent, and was in practice little more 
than bishop of the Kentishmen. All over the north and midlands 
there were eager champions both of the Roman and of the Scottish 
Easter, and it seemed as if the war between Christian and heathen 
was only to be succeeded by war between the two rival forms of 
Christianity. 

17. Oswiu was only a rough warrior, but he saw the need of 
stopping the conflict of Scot and Roman, and in 664 summoned 
a synod, or Church council, of both parties in the 

Church to Streoneshalch, on the coast of Deira, better ^^^^yy qq^ 
known by its later Danish name of Whitby. His object 
in doing this was that he might hear what was to be said in favour of 
their teaching, and so make up his mind as to which form of the faith 
he should adopt. The chief point of dispute was the right time of 
celebrating Easter. WiKrid of Ripon upheld the Roman usage ; 
the Scottish bishop Colman, Aidan's successor at Lindisfarne, 
pleaded for the traditions of Columba, and Chad of Lichfield 
sought to mediate between the two. At last Oswiu declared in 
favour of the Roman Easter, whereupon Colman and the Scots 
withdrew to Zona, Oswiu was strong enough to make all England 
accept his decision, and this secured that English Christianity 
should follow Rome and not lona. This was a good thing, for 
though the Scottish monks were the saintHest of men and the best 
of missionaries, their Church had more faith and enthusiasm than 
order or method. In declaring for the Roman Easter, Oswiu 

D 



34 THE CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH 1654» 

preveiite(l. the Eng-Ksh Clmrch being cut off from tlie Church of 
the world at large. He secured for England the priceless blessings 
of order and civilization, which were in those days represented by 
Rome. Before long' the Roman Easter was accepted even by the 
Scots and Britons. Thus all the Churches of the British Islands 
were brought into the same system. 

18. Pour years after the synod of Whitby, a G-reek, Theodore 

of Tarsus, a native of the city where St. Paul had been born, 

, „ was sent from Rome as archbishop of Canterbury. 
The work of _,, . , . , / , , " 

Theodope Theodore was a much wiser, and stronger man than 

of Tarsus. any of the other early bishops of the English. He 
made friends with Oswiu, and after that king's death 
in 671, became eq^uaUy intimate with his son Ecgfrith. Archbishop 
for more than twenty years, Theodore was able, before his death in 
690, to organize the English Church in a very satisfactory fashion. 
He divided aU England into bishoprics, and set up several different 
bishops in each of the three great kingdoms. He forced every 
bishop in England to pay obedience to the archbishop of Canter- 
bury, who in those days was the only archbishop in the land. He 
set up schools for the training of the clergy, and took care that 
each bishop should have a number of priests and monks to work 
under him. It has sometimes been said that Theodore divided 
England into parishes, each under its priest ; but this was done 
very gradually, and not until long after Theodore's day. Theodore 
also provided that the clergy of the English Church should meet 
from time to time in national coimcils. This was very important, 
since it broug'ht Englishmen, subject to different kings, into close 
contact with each other. Thus Theodore united Eng'land under a 
single Church long before she had become united into a single 
kingdom. He could not have done his work so effectively but for 
the power of the Northumbrian kings, whose overlordship was a 
real step towards political unity. 

19. Erom Theodore's time onward, the English Church pros- 
pered greatly. It soon became unnecessary for England to get its 
The glories ^^^^^^P^ ^^^^ abroad, and Theodore's successors were 
of the Old nearly all Englishmen. During the eighth century 
Churlh. *^^ Chui'ch of England became a pattern to all the 

"West. It sent out missionaries who made Grermany a 
Christian land, the chief of these being Boniface, the first archbishop 
of Mainz, who did for the German Church what Theodore did for the 
Church of England. Famous monasteries and schools arose in Eng- 
land, and especially in Northumbria, which were filled with learned 



-685.] THE EARLY OVERLORDSHIPS 3$ 

and pious men. In one monastery at Whitby, ruled by a royal 
abbess named Hilda, dwelt Caedmon, a poor lay brother, whose 
rare gift for song made him the greatest of the old English poets. 
In another, Jarrow-on-the-Tyne, lived the monk Bede, the first 
English historian, whose Ecclesiastical History of the English People 
teUs us nearly all that we know of our history up to his own life- 
time. Another distinguished Englishman of those days was Egbert, 
bishop of York, who won back for his Church the position of an 
archbishopric, which it had held under Paulinus, though for many 
centuries the archbishops of York were bound to profess obedience 
to the archbishops of Canterbury. Under Egbert the schools of 
York became very famous, and one of their disciples, Alcuin, was 
so well known for his learning that he was called from York 
to Gaul to be the head of the school which Charles the Great, 
the famous king of the Franks, set up in his palace. Thus 
England, which previously had been barbarous and ignorant, 
became, after its conversion, a centre of light and learning to all 
western Europe. 

20. The eighth century was the great age of the Northumbrian 
Church, but the ^Northumbrian political supremacy had utterly 
passed away. Oswiu was the last Northumbrian king 
to be caUed Bretwalda, though his son Ecgfrith (671- gyf-ess' 
685) was not much less powerful than his father. In and the fall 
685, however, Ecgfrith tried to conquer the Picts, but of Nopthum- 
was defeated, and met his death at the battle of supremacy. 
Nectansmere. None of his successors were strong 
enough even to rule his own kingdom. 



GENEALOGY OF CHIEF NORTHUMBRIAN KINGS 

iEXHELFRITH. 

i 



Oswald. Oswiu. 

I 
Ecgfrith. 



21. Mercia soon stepped into the place of supremacy left vacant 
by the fall of Northumbrian greatness. Ever since the victories 
of Penda she had been a great state, though over- The Mercian 
shadowed by the superior power of the Northumbrians, oveplord- 
For the greater part of the eighth century Mercia ^^^P* 
was by far the strongest of aU the English kingdoms. During most 



36 



THE EARLY OVERLORDSHIPS 



[716- 



of tMs period she was ruled by two great kings, eacli of whom 
U^^ep reigned for an exceptionally long period. The first of 

Etiielbald, these, Ethelbald (716-757), became so powerful that 
716-757. j^g ^as not content to he called king of the Mercians, 
hut styled himself "king of all the South EngUsh." Under his 




NORTHUMBRIA 



Sketch Map showing position of Nectansmere. 



And Offa, 
757-796. 

kingdom. 



successor, Offa the Mighty (757-796), the Mercian supremacy 
attained its culminating point. Offa drove the 
ISTorthumbrians out of the lands that now form 
southern Lancashire, and incorporated them with his 
He conquered from the "West Saxons all their territories 
north of the Thames, which henceforward remained the boundary 
of the two states. He made Shrewsbury an English town, driving 
the Welsh from the middle Severn valley, and digging, it is said, 
a deep ditch and mound, called Offa's Dyhe, between the mouth of 
the Dee and the mouth of the "Wye, to separate Mercia and Wales. 
He slew the king of the East Angles, and annexed Kent. He 
appointed two sons-in-law as dependent kings over Wessex and 
Northumbria. In every way he exercised more authority over the 
rest of England than any king before his days. He was one 
of the few Old English kings powerfid enough to have much 



-796.] 



THE EARLY OVERLORDSHIPS 



Z7 



influerice beyond sea. Tlie great Frankish. king, Cliarles tlie 
Great, was liis friend, and often corresponded with liim. Thougli 
a fierce warrior, like all the great Mercians, Offa was a good friend 
of the Church, and built the abbey of St. Alban's in honour of 




Emery Weilker sc. 



the first British martyr. Offa thought it unworthy of the great- 
ness of Mercia that it should be subject to an archbishop who 
lived outside Mercia. He therefore persuaded the pope to make 
Lichfield, the chief Mercian see, an archbishopric. If this plan 
had succeeded, each of the three chief states of England would have 



38 THE EARLY OVERLORDSHIPS [821. 

had an archbishop of its own, for Northumbria had its primate 
at York, and Canterbury, cut off from ruling the Midlands, would 
soon have become the archbishopric of the West Saxons only. 
The result of this would have been to destroy the unity of the 
English Church as established by Theodore. Luckily Offa's plan 
did not last long, for only one archbishop ever sat at Lichfield. 

22. Offa's successor, CenuK (796-821), was less powerful than 
he, and was so much afraid of the persistent hostility of Canterbury 
that he gave up the plan of making Lichfield an arch- 
796-821 , bishopric. When Cenulf died, Mercia fell into anarchy, 
and the fall just as !N'orthumbria had done after the death of 
r) ereia. Ecgfrith. Supremacy depended mainly on the character 
of the king, and no kingdom had the good luck to have an 
uninterrupted succession of kings strong enough to rule their 
neighboiu's. But each fresh overlordship was a fresh step towards 
the unity of England, and Offa had done much towards it by 
breaking down the power of the lesser kingdoms. The smaller 
" heptarchic " states had by this time ceased to have any real 
independence. Only the three great states counted any longer. 
Of these !N"orthumbria and Mercia had exhausted themselves, so 
that soon after Cenulf s death supremacy once more passed south- 
wards, when the supremacy of Wessex succeeded upon that of the 
midland and the northern kingdoms. 



CHAPTER V 

THE WEST SAXON OVERLORDSHIP AND 
THE DANISH INVASIONS (802-899) 

Chief Dates : 

802. Accession of Egbert. 

825. Battle of Ellandune. 

858. Death of Ethelwulf. 

871. Alfred's year of battles. 

878. Treaty of Chippenham. 

886. Alfred and Guthrum's Peace. 

899. Death of Alfred. 

911. Normandy established. 

1. During the ^sTortliiimbrian overlordship Wessex was steadily 
making its way westwards at the expense of the West Welsh, and 
eastwards at the cost of the little Saxon and Jutish 
kingdoms of the south-east. Its progress was stayed \Yesse^ 
for a time when its neighbour, Mercia, replaced 
Northumbria as the supreme state among the English. During 
this period Wessex was forced to surrender to Mercia the West 
Saxon lands north of the Thames and its supremacy over Kent 
and the little kingdoms of the south-east. On the west, however, 
Wessex did not cease its gradual conquests over the West Welsh. 
It was during the eighth century that Wessex added to its posses- 
sions all that is now Somersetshire and the south-east parts of 
Devonshire, including Exeter and Crediton. 

2. The worst blow to West Saxon power was when Offa set 
up his son-in-law as its king, and drove beyond the seas the ^thel- 
ing (prince) Egbert, who was forced to live many jYie reign 
years as an exile at the court of Charles the G-reat, of Egbert, 
the king of the Franks. When Egbert was still with 802-839. 
Charles, the great Frankish king was crowned Roman emperor at 
E-ome on Christmas Day, 800, by the pope. Two years later, after 
his rival's death, Egbert was called home to be made king of the 
West Saxons (802). A skilful statesman and a bold warrior, he 
employed the first years of his reign in waging war against the 

39 



40 THE WEST SAXONS AND THE DANES [825- 

West Welsh, whose power lie broke for ever, conquering- all 
Devonshire np to the Tamar, and forcing the still unsubdued 
Cornislimen to pay him tribute. After Cenulf's death in 821, 
Mercia fell into such confusion that Egbert was tempted to attack 

it. In 825 he defeated the Mercians at a great battle 
?f the"wfs^t at EUandune (EHingdon near Swindon), in Wiltshire. 
Saxon supre- The Mercian supremacy collapsed in that single day, 
macy, 825. ^^^ henceforth Egbert was overlord, or Bretwalda, 
over all the English and most of the Welsh. Kent, Sussex, 
Essex were reconquered by Wessex; East Anglia, in its hatred 
of Mercia, willingly yielded to West Saxon supremacy ; the Nor- 
thumbrians submitted as soon as a West Saxon army approached 
their southern frontier; and the Welsh of IS'orth Wales were 
forced to make humble submission. Thus began that West Saxon 
overlordship out of which ultimately grew the ujiited English 
monarchy. 

3. Despite all his triumphs, Egbert did not die in peace. 
Though no foes ventured to stand up against him in Britain, new 
„ . . enemies came from beyond the sea, whose ravages 

of the soon threatened to undermine the West Saxon power. 

Danish in- After some centuries of rest, fresh swarms of Teutonic 

barbarians began to seek for spoil in the lands which 
had once acknowledged Rome as their master. These were the 
fierce pirates known in England as Danes, in Germany as East- 
men, and Gaul as the Northmen. They came from Scandinavia, 
both from I^orway and from Denmark. These regions were at 
this period much in the same condition as North Germany had 
been f oui- centuries before, when it sent the Angles and Saxons to 
the shores of Britain. The country was too poor and remote to 
satisfy the wants of its inhabitants, who gradually got into the 
habit of seeking plunder and adventure at the expense of more fertile 
and sunny districts. The road by land southwards to the continent 
was blocked by the armies of Charles the Great, so the Norsemen 
took to the sea, and sought out the coasts of Britain and Ireland 
as places where booty might be won at no great risk to themselves. 
Greedy, ferocious, but terribly efficient, they could generally break 
down the resistance offered to them. They were still heathens, 
and took special delight in plundering Christian churches and 
monasteries. Before Offa's death they had begun to devastate 
Northumbria. In the latter years of Egbert they ventured to 
attack Wessex itself. The Cornish Welsh were so afraid of Egbert 
that they gladly made common cause with the new-comers- 



-872.] THE WEST SAXONS AND THE DANES 4 1 

Eg-bert's last victory was gained at Hengston Down., in East Corn- 
wall, over a joint force of Danes and Cornishmen. 

4. Two years afterwards, in 839, the g*reat king* died, leaving" to 
liis pious and gentle son, Ethelwnlf (839-858), the task of dealing 
with these terrible foes. Ethelwrilf was a well-mean- jj^g reign of 
ing king, but he was not strong enough to uphold Ethelwulf, 
West Saxon supremacy against such formidable rivals. °39-858. 
He gained some victories over them, but the pirates soon found that 
they had only to persevere in their incursions to obtain what they 
sought. At first they had come in summer-time as plunderers, and 
were content to sail home in auti^nn, with their ships laden with 
booty, that they might revel in their own homes all through the dark 
and long northern winter. Before long they began to winter in 
England, and thereby found that the land was a pleasanter place to 
live in than their own country. Thus, like the English before 
them, they ceased to be mere plunderers, and began to wish to 
make settlements. 

5. G-reat changes in Scandinavia soon increased the desire of the 

Danes to win new homes outside their mother-country. Up to this 

time Danes and Norsemen had been split up into a ,j.. Worse 

large number of little states, ruled by petty chieftains, migrations 

called larZs. But now some of the chieftains proved of the ninth 

• . centupv 

themselves stronger than their rivals, fought against 

them, and conquered them after the same fashion in which some 
of the English kingdoms were constantly bringing their weaker 
neig'hbours into subjection. Before long there was a single king 
governing all N^orway, another all Denmark, and another all 
Sweden. The most famous of these was Harold Eairhair 
(860-872), the first king of all Norway. So sternly did Harold 
rule over the conquered tribes that the freedom-loving Norse- 
men bitterly resented his supremacy. As they were unable to 
overthrow him in his own land, many of them abandoned their 
native valleys, and sought out new abodes for themselves in the 
lands wliich they had already got to know during their plundering 
expeditions. Thus the latter part of the ninth century saw a 
great Norse migration, which profoundly affected the whole of 
western Europe. The first places chosen for these new settlements 
were the islands that were nearest to the coasts of Norway. After 
this fashion Iceland, hitherto almost uninhabited, became a Norse 
island, and ultimately the special home of the bravest, strongest, 
and most typical of the Scandinavian race. Some of the Norsemen 
made their way beyond Iceland, settled in Greenland, and sent 



42 



THE WEST SAXONS AND THE DANES [858- 



OTit explorers, who discovered, five centuries before Columbus, the 

continent of North 
America. The dis- 
tricts at which they 
touched, which were 
afterwards called New 
Eng-land, they called 
Vinland, the land of 
the vine. 

6. More important 
for us than the move- 
ment westward was 
the migration south- 
ward, which now 
made the Faroe 
Islands, Orkney and 
Shetland the homes 
of Norse settlers. Be- 
fore long the hardy 
seamen made their 
way to the coasts of 
Britain. They estab- 
lished themselves on 
the mainland of the 
extreme north, driv- 
ing out the Celts from 
the northern parts of 
the modern Scotland, 
and establishing the 
Norse tongue and the 
Norse people in CaHh- 
ness and Sutherland, 
This latter district, 
the south land, marked 
the southern limit of 
their settlements on 
the mainland. But 
along the western sea- 
board of Scotland the 
Norsemen penetrated 
very much further. 
They settled in the 




i83 THE WEST SAXONS AND THE DANES 43 

Hebrides, and pushed their way from island to island until they 
had conquered the Isle of Man. Ireland, which had learnt little 
from the Romans save the Christian faith, and had _,, ^^ 
stood outside the range of the English conquest, was settlements 
now at last brought into the general current of great ^^ Celtic 
European movements by the establishment of l^orse 
settlements upon its coasts. However, in Ireland, as in the 
Hebrides and southern islands, the invaders did not utterly dis- 
place the former inhabitants as the English had done in south- 
eastern Britain, and the !N'orse in Orkney, Shetland, and Caithness. 
Side by side with the new Danish states, the old Celtic tribal 
states still lived on ; and perpetual wars were waged for many 
centuries between the new-comers and the older inliabitants. 

7. At last South Britain itself was exposed to the Norse 
migration. The dependent king-doms of the north-east of England 
were not strong enough to resist it, and before long 

East Anglia, southern Northumbria, and the northern settlements 
parts of Mercia were conquered by the Danes. Nor in England 
were the British islands alone exposed to Danish settle- ^^^d the 
ment. Other swarms of Norsemen sought out new 
abodes on the Continent. A Swedish chief, named Rurik, conquered 
the Slavs on the east of the Baltic, and laid the foundations of the 
modern Russia. In the next generation they set up a Scandi- 
navian state upon the north coast of Graul, which took the name of 
Normandy, or land of the Northmen. 

8. Wessex was the last English state to feel the impact of the 
victorious Scandinavians. Yet even in Ethelwulf 's lifetime Danish 
armies had taken up their winter quarters within his 
dominions, as, for example, in 855, when the Northmen nn^^essex 
settled for the cold season in Sheppey, an island off 

the coast of Kent, which had now virtually become a part of the 
West Saxon realm. During the short reigns of Ethelwulf 's sons 
the full force of the Norse migration threatened "Wessex with the 
fate of East Anglia and Mercia. 

9. Ethelwulf died in 858, and was succeeded by his four sons in 
succession. After the Frankish fashion, he divided his dominions, 
making his eldest son, Ethelbald, king of the West xhe sons of 
Saxons, while Ethelbert, the second, became under- Ethelwulf, 
king of Kent. But after a short reign of two years 858-899, 
Ethelbald died, whereupon Ethelbert became king of Wessex from 
860 to 866. He was in turn succeeded by Ethelred, king of Wessex 
from 866 to 871. On Ethelred's death, Alfred obtained possession 



44 THE WEST SAXONS AND THE DANES [871- 

of the throne, and ruled until 899. During the first three of these 
reigns the Danes perpetually troubled Wessex; but it was not 
until the last year of Ethelred's reign that they began the 
systematic conquest of that kingdom. Etheked, a strenuous and 
mighty warrior, withstood the invaders with rare spirit and with 
partial success, and was ably supported by his younger brother, 
Alfred's ^'^ ^theKng Alfred. In one memorable year, 871, the 

year of West Saxons fought nine pitched battles against the 

battles, 871. D^j^es. The most famous of these was the battle of 
Ashdown on the Berkshire downs, where the invaders were so 
rudely repulsed that they withdrew for a time to their camp at 
E-eading. Within a fortnight, however, they resumed the attack, 
and, after another fierce fight, Ethelred died, worn out with the 
strain and exposure involved in the resistance to them. Alfred, his 
fellow- worker, then a young man of twenty-three, at once assumed 
the monarchy of the West Saxons. He assailed the Danes so 
fiercely that they were glad to make peace and withdraw over the-* 
Thames. For the next few years they left Wessex to itseK. 
During this period they completed the conquest of Mercia by 
dividing its lands amongst their leaders. When this process was 
once accomplished, Wessex was once more to feel the weight of 
their power. 

10. In January, 878, the Danes again invaded Wessex. They 
were led by a famous chieftain, Gruthrum, and fought under a 
Alfred saves hanner bearing the sign of a raven. It was unusual 
Wessex, in those days to fight in winter, and Alfred was un- 

prepared for their sudden onslaught. He was driven 
from Chippenham, where he was residing, and forced to withdraw, 
while the enemy overran his kingdom. But even in this crisis he 
kept up his courage. With a little band he made his way by wood 
and swamp to Athehiey, an island amidst the marches of Mid 
Somerset, at the confluence of the Tone and Parret. There he 
built a fort, from which he kept fighting against the foe. Before 
long he was able to abandon his refuge and gather an army round 
him. In May he defeated Guthrum in a pitched battle at Edington 
in Wiltshire. The Danes fled in confusion to Chippenham, where 
they had entrenched a camp, and were pursued and besieged by 
AKred. After a fortnight's siege, Guthrum was willing to make 
peace with his enemy. The Danes " swore mighty oaths that they 
would quit Alfred's realm, and that their king should receive 
baptism." AKred stood godfather to Guthrum, and entertained 
him at Wedmore, in Somerset, for twelve days. For this reason 



-886,] THE WEST SAXONS AND THE DANES 4§ 

tlie treaty between Alfred and tlie Danes is often called tlie treaty 
of Wedmore. By it tlie Danes not only agreed to withdraw from 
Wessex; they left southern and western Mercia in the hands of 
Alfred, and contented themselves with the northern and eastern 
districts of Mercia, where they had already made an effective 
settlement. But they kept their hold over Essex and London, and 
besides this, were rulers over eastern Mercia, East Anglia, and 
Northumbria. Thus Alfred saved "Wessex from the Danes, and in 
saving his own kingdom, he preserved all England from becoming 
a merely Danish land. 

11. For a season there was peace between Alfred and the 
Danes. Seven years later more fighting broke out, and Alfred once 
more proved victorious. In 886 Guthrum was once Alfred and 
more forced to make a disadvantageous peace, by Guthrum's 
which he yielded up London and its neighbourhood to P®^c®» ^S®* 
the West Saxons. By the second treaty, called Alfred and 
Guthrum's Peace, the boundary between Alfred's kingdom and the 
lands of the Danes was fixed as follows : It went up the Thames as 
far as the river Lea, then up the Lea to its source, and thence to 
Bedford, from which town it continued up the Ouse to Watling 
Street. Beyond that it is not known for certain where the dividing- 
line ran, but it is often thought that it followed the old Roman 
road as far as Chester, which thus became the northern outpost of 
Alfred's kingdom. Thus West Saxon Mercia formed a great 
triangle, whose base was the Thames, whose other sides were the 
Watling Street and the Welsh frontier, and whose apex was the old 
Roman city of Chester. Within these limits Alfred ruled as he 
pleased. But the tradition of independence was still strong in 
Mercia, and Alfred thought it wise to set up a separate government 
for that part of the midland kingdom which now belonged to him. 
He made Ethelred, a Mercian nobleman, alderman of the Mercians, 
and ensured his fidelity by marrying him to his own daughter, 
Ethelflaed. Before long the many princes of Wales submitted to 
his verier dship, and promised to be as obedient to him as were 
Ethelred and his Mercians. Alfred thus ensui-ed West Saxon 
supremacy over all southern Britain that was not governed by the 
Danes. 

12. North of the boundary line the Danes stiU remained 
m^asters. They ruled the country after the Danish fashion, divided 
the lands among themselves, and forced the English xhe Dane- 
to work for them. The Danish districts were called law. 

the Danelaw, because they were governed according to the law of 



46 



THE WEST SAXONS AND THE DANES 



[886- 



the Danes. But tlie Danelaw did not long keep itself distinct from 
the rest of England. Tlie Danish, conquerors were few in number, 




Emery Watker sc 



and not very different, either in language or in manners, from the 



WL 



-892.J THE WEST SAXONS AND THE DANES 47 

English among wliom they lived. They soon followed Grnthr-iun's 
example, and became Christians. When they had renounced their 
old heathen gods, the chief thing that separated them from the 
English disappeared. Gradually they abandoned their own tongue 
and used the language of the English, which was not very unlike 
their own speech. The result was that English and Danes in the 
Danelaw were joined together in a single people, differing only 
from their "West Saxon neighbours in the south because they still 
retained something of the fierceness and energy of the Danish 
pirates from whom some of them were descended. For many 
generations the mixed Danes and English of the north and mid- 
lands remained more warlike and vigorous than the sluggish West 
Saxons of purer English descent. Finally, however, it only 
became possible to distinguish the Danelaw from the rest of the 
country by the occurrence of certain Scandinavian suffixes in place- 
names such as " by," " ness," " force," " thwaite," and the like. 
Wherever such forms cluster thickly, as in Yorkshire and the 
northern midlands, there we know that the Danes had at one time 
settled most numerously. 

13. Though the men of the Danelaw were better fighters, the 
greater civilization of the West Saxons still enabled them to 
exercise influence over the ruder north country. More- ., 

over, while Wessex remained under Alfred and his restoration 
successors a single state ruled by a strong king, the of West 
Danelaw was broken up into many petty states, each supremacy, 
governed by its own jarl, or alderman. This division 
of the Danish power made it easy for Alfred to restore his overlord- 
ship over northern and eastern England, so that before he died he 
held quite as strong a position as ever Egbert had done. Thus the 
West Saxon supremacy, threatened with destruction by the Danish 
invasion, was restored on a broader basis after a very few years. 
The Danes had destroyed the old local lines of kings, whom Mercians 
and East Anglians had so long obeyed. This made it easier for the 
West Saxon kings to exercise authority over the north and east 
than had been the case in earlier times. Alfred had, in fact, done 
more than revive the overlordsliip of Egbert. He laid the founda- 
tions of that single monarchy of all England which was soon to 
become a reality under his son and grandson. '* He was," says 
the English Chronicle^ " king over the whole kin of the English, 
except that part which was under the sway of the Danes." But 
he still generally called himself " king of the West Saxons," like 
his Dredecessors. His self-restraint was wise, for the old English 



48 THE WEST SAXONS AND THE DANES [892- 

local feeling still remained very strong, and the new blood in the 
Danelaw did something to strengthen it. 

14. Alfred took care to prevent the renewal of Danish invasions 
by devising improved ways of marshalling the "fyrd," or local 
jj,g militia, in which every free man was bound in those 

mimary days to serve. Tliis force he divided into two parts, 

reforms. « g^ ^j^^t always half were at home and half were on 
service." He also increased the number of fortresses in England. 
Moreover, he saw that the best way of keeping the Norsemen out 
of his kingdom was by building ships and trying to defeat the 
enemy at sea, so as to prevent them landing at all. He caused a new 
type of ships to be made, which were bigger and stronger than the 
frail craft of the Danes. Yet all his pains could not prevent his 
kingdom being assailed once more by a chieftain named Haesten, 
who, being driven from the continent in 892, tried to 
with effect a regular conquest of Wessex. After a good 

Haesten, deal of bloodshed, Haesten withdrew baflled. After 
^^^* his failure little is heard of fresh Danish invasions for 

the best part of a century. There was plenty of fighting between 
English and Danes, but the Danes against whom Eng'lishmen had 
to contend were the Danes settled in England. The great period 
of Danish settlement was at last over, not only in Britain, but also 
Beginnings ^^ ^^^ continent. There, in 911, the JSTorsemen, 
of Nor- under the leadership of a sea-king named Rolf, made 

mandy, 911. -j^jj^ejj. j^^st and most famous conquest in the lower part 
of western Erance, on both sides of the lower Seine. From them 
the land took its name of " Kormandy," or " land of the !N^orthmen," 
and its people were called iN^ormans, a softened form of Northmen. 
But just as the Norsemen in England quickly become English, so 
did their kinsfolk in France quickly become French. We shall 
see later how important these Normans became in English history. 
15. In resisting the Danes, Alfred won g'reat fame as a warrior 
But there were many soldiers in that age of hard fighting who 
Alfred's approached Alfred in military reputation. It is his 

peaceful peculiar glory that he was as strenuous and successful 
reforms. ^ ^-j^^ ^^^^ ^^ peace as in the arts of war. He stands 
far above the mere soldier-king by his zeal to promote good laws, 
sound administration, and the prosperity and civilization of his 
people. He found England in a terrible state of desolation after 
the Danish invasions. He laboured with great zeal and no small 
measure cf success to bring back to the land the blessings of peace 
and prosperity. He collected the old laws by which the West 



-899-] THE WEST SAXONS AND THE DANES 49 

Saxons liad long been ruled, and put them togetlier in a convenient 
form, long famous as the laws of Alfred. He encourag'ed trade, 
repeopled London, which the Danes had left desolate, and was 
a special friend to merchants and seafarers. He encouraged sailors 
to explore distant seas and tell him the results of their inquiries. 
He corresponded with the pope ana many foreign kings, and sent 
gifts to foreign Churches, including the distant Christian Church 
of India. Yet his own country was always foremost in his mind. 
In England he restored the churches and monasteries that had 
been destroyed by the Danes, and strove to fill them with well- 
educated priests and monks. In his early years he had been 
appalled at the ignorance of Ms clergy. " There was not one priest 
south of the Thames," said he, " who could understand the Latin 
of the mass-book, and very few in the rest of England." To spread 
knowledge among those who did not understand Latin, he caused 
several books of importance to be translated, among them being 
Bede's Ecclesiastical History and a treatise by Pope Gregory the 
Great on Pastoral Care. Moreover, he ordered the compilation of 
an English Chronicle, in which was set down all that was then 
known of the history of the English people, and which, continued 
in various monasteries up to the twelfth century, became from that 
time onward the chief source of our knowledge of Old English 
history, and the most remarkable of the early histories which any 
European people possesses written in its own language. He set up 
schools in the royal court, after the example of Charles the Great. 
As he found few West Saxons able to co-operate with liim in these 
learned labours, he welcomed to his coast scholars from foreign 
lands, from Mercia, from Wales, and from the continent. The 
most famous of these was a Welshman named Asser, who became 
bishop of Sherborne, in Dorsetshire, and afterwards wrote Alfred's 
life. Alfred's work was the more remarkable since he was 
constantly troubled by a painful illness, and never succeeded in 
winning many efficient fellow- workers among his sluggish fellow- 
countrymen. Even more wonderful than what he did was the 
spirit in which he worked. His character is among the noblest 
and purest in all history. He was truth-telling, temperate, 
virtuous, high-minded, pious, liberal, and discreet, the 
friend of the poor, and so eager to uphold justice that ^^ pg^ ggg^ 
he often administered the law himself, and always 
kept a watchful eye on the decisions of his judges. He died in 
899, amidst the lamentations of his subjects, and has ever since 
been known as King Alfred the Great. 

E 



CHAPTER VI 

THE SUCCESSORS OF ALFRED AND THE 
BEGINNINGS OF THE ENGLISH MON- 
ARCHY (899-978) 

Chief Dates : 

899-924. Reign of Edward the Elder. 

924-940. Reign of Athelstan. 

940-946. Reign of Edmund the Magnificent. 

946-955. Reign of Edred. 

955-959- Reign of Edwy. 

959-975- Reign of Edgar. 

975-978. Reign .of Edward the Martyr. 

1. Alfhed was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward, called 
Edward tlie Elder, who had already been associated in the govern- 
Edward the ^®^* duruig" his father's lifetime. Though carefully 
Elder, educated, Edward showed no trace of his father's love 

899-924. £qj, ^-^q ^j.^g Qf peace. He was, however, as strenuous 
a warrior as ever Alfred had been. He worthily carried on the 
great king's work of bringing together England into a single 
state. In this he was much helped by his brother-in-law, Ethelred 
of Mercia, and, after his death, by his sister Ethelflaed, whom he 
continued in the government of Mercia with the title of the Lady 
of the Mercians. Edward and his sister waged constant war 
against the Danes. They strengthened their frontier both against 
the Danes and the Welsh by building or restoring " boroughs," or 
fortified towns, from which they might attack the enemy in his own 
lands. A further step soon followed when the West Saxons and 
Mercians overstepped the line drawn by AKred, and gradually 
conquered the Danelaw after much hard fighting. The most 
famous of these contests centred round the district dependent on 
the Five Bamsh Boroughs of Derby, Stamford, Nottingham^ 
Leicester, and Lincoln. At the moment of their final contest 
Ethelflaed died. She had shown as much warlike skiU as her 
brother, and had loyally worked with him. Edward felt so much 
stronger than Alfred that he appointed no successor to his sister, 
so 



924.] BEGINNINGS OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHY 5 1 

but took over tlie government both, of Danish and of English. Mercia 
into his own hands. He next assailed East Anglia, and easily 
subdued it. Then came the turn of Korthumbria, in which Deira, 
or Yorkshire, was ruled by a Danish jarl, while Bernicia, which 
had escaped Norse conquest, was governed by an independent 
English alderman. Edward prepared for his northern advance by 
building a fresh line of fortresses from Chester eastwards along 
the line of the Mersey. In 923 he made his first conquest of 
Northumbrian territory by taking possession of " Manchester in 
Northumbria." 

2. By this time the rulers of Britain perceived that there was no 
use in fighting against the great West Saxon king. Immediately on 
the conquest of Mercia the kings of the Welsh and all p.^™,- ^ ^j^g 
their people sought Edward as their lord. At their first king 
head was Howel the G-ood, the famous law- giver, and of the 

the most distinguished of the Welsh princes for many ' 

generations. " And in 924," says the Chronicle, " then chose him 
for father and lord the king of the Scots and the whole nation of 
the Scots, and all those who dwell in Northumbria, whether 
EngKsh or Danes, and also the king of the Strathclyde Welsh and 
all the Strathclyde Welsh." This was the culminating act of 
Edward's reign. He died before the end of 924, when stiU a young 
man. Conscious of his increasing power, he was not content to 
call himself king of the West Saxons as Alfred had done. He 
preferred to describe himseK as king of the English, or king of 
the Anglo-Saxons — that is, of the two races of Angles and Saxons; 
which we collectively call the English. From his day onward the 
monarchy of England, though often threatened, became a perma- 
nent thing. Thus the West Saxon overlordship grew into the 
kingdom over aU the English. 

3. Three sons of Edward the Elder now ruled successively over- 
the EngHsh. Of these, Athelstan, the eldest, was as vigorous a 
warrior as his father. He put an end to the dynasty of 

Danish princes that had hitherto reigned in Deira, and 924^940 °* 
added that district to the dominions directly governed 
by him. He ruled, we are told, over all the kings that were in 
Britain. So firmly did his power seem established that foreign 
princes sought his alliance, and the greatest rulers of the age were 
glad to marry themselves or their kinsfolk to Athelstan's sisters. 
The empire of Charles the Great had now broken up, and separate 
kingdoms had arisen for the East and the West Franks, out of 
which the later kingdoms of Grermany and France were soon to 



52 BEGINNINGS OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHY [924- 

arise. Henry tlie Fowler, king of tlie East Franks, or Germans, 
married Ms son Otto to Athelstan's sister Edith. Tkis was the 
Otto who afterwards became the Emperor Otto the Great, the 
revirer of the Roman Empire and the founder of the great German 
monarchy, which annexed, so to say, the title of Roman emperors 
for itself. Other sisters of Athelstan were married to Charles the 
Simple, king of the West Franks, or French, and to Hugh, duke 
of the French, whose son, called Hugh Capet, finally put an end to 
the rule of the Carolings, or descendants of Charles the Great, 
and begun the Capetian dynasty which ruled over France as long 
as France retained the government of kings. The result of all 
these alliances was that no Old English king was so weU known on 
the continent as Athelstan. 

4. In 937 jealousy of their West Saxon overlord drew the 
dependent rulers of Britain into a strong coalition against him. 
The battle ^^^ leaders of this were Constantine, king of Scots, 
of Bpunan- the Danish kings of Dublin, and some of the Welsh 
buph. princes. But Athelstan met the confederate army and 
crushed it at Brunanburh, a place probably situated in the north-west 
of England, though its exact site is unknown. This fight is com- 
memorated in a magnificent war-song given in t];ie English Chronicle. 
It ensured peace for the rest of Athelstan's lifetime. Three years 
later he died, in 940. Men called him Glorious Athelstan. He 
made many good laws, and was a great friend of the Church. 

5. Athelstan's younger brother, Edmund, who had shared in 
the glory of Brunanburh, then became king. He was soon con- 
Edmund the fi'onted by revolts of the Danes of northern Mercia 
Magnificent, and Deira. But he easily reconquered both the Five 

Danish Boroughs and Danish Yorkshire. He then 
took Cumberland from its Welsh princes and gave it to Malcolm, 
king of Scots, "on the condition that he should be his feUow- 
worker as well by sea as by land." For these exploits he was 
called the Magnificent, or the Deed-Doer. His career was cut 
short in 946 through his murder by an outlaw. 

6. Edmund left two sons, named Edwy and Edgar, but they 
were young children, and no one thought of making either of them 

king. The nobles turned rather to their uncle Edred, 
946-955. ^^^ youngest of Edward the Elder's sons, who was at 

once chosen king. Unlike his two brothers, Edred 
was weak in health and unable to play the warrior's part. But he 
was prudent enough to put the management of his affairs into the 
hands of the wisest man in all England. This was Dunstan, abbot 



-959-] BEGINNINGS OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHY 53 

of Grlastonbury, who was already famous for having reformed the 
lax state of the monks under his charg-e, and who now showed that 
he was a shrewd statesman as well as a zealous ecclesiastic. Under 
his gnidance the West Saxon monarchy continued in its career 
of victory under its sickly king, though, as a rule, in those days 
a weak ruler meant an unlucky reign. Once more Northumbria 
was conquered from the Danes in 954, and with this event the 
unity of England seemed accomplished. Proud of his great power 
Edred was no longer content to call himself king of the English. 
He sometimes styled himself emperor, Jcing, and Csesar of Britain, 
as if to the English monarchy he had added the dominion over all 
the island. These titles must not be taken too seriously, yet they 
show that the aim now before the West Saxon house was nothing 
less than supremacy over all the British isles. Thus under Edred 
the work began by Alfred was completed. It was rendered the 
easier by the fact that Danes and English of the Danelaw had by 
this time become blended into a single people. Dunstan was wise 
enough to allow the men of the north country to retain their own 
laws and be ruled by their own earls. It was the best way to make 
them obedient to their West Saxon king. But the great difference 
of temper between north and south still remained, and there soon 
arose an opportunity for it to assert itself. 

7. Edred died in 955, and his nephew Edwy, though hardly yet 
a man, was chosen king as the oldest member of the royal house 
available. Under him troubles soon began. The young 

king quarrelled with Dunstan, and drove him into qcI^qcq 
banishment. The abbot was popular among the 
Northumbrians and Mercians, though he had many enemies among 
the West Saxon nobles who swayed the mind of the young king. 
It is very likely that after Dunstan's exile the rule of Edwy over 
the Northumbrians and Mercians became more severe than the 
mild government of Edred. Anyhow, Mercia and Northumbria 
rose in revolt, and declared that they would no longer have Edwy 
to reign over them. They then chose as their king the ^theling 
Edgar, Edwy's younger brother. England was now so far united 
that even those who wished to divide it could only find a king in 
the sacred royal house of Wessex. 

8. Edgar easily became king of the n6rth and midlands. He 
at once recalled Dunstan from exile, and made him Edgar the 
bishop, first of Worcester, and afterwards of London Peaceful, 

as well. For the r^st of his life Edwy reigned " * 
over Wessex alone. His early death in 959 resulted, however, in 



54 BEGINNINGS OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHY [959- 

tlie reunioii of England. Thereupon the West Saxons chose Edgar 
as their king-. From that day till his death Edgar ruled over all 
England, and, alone of the great West Saxon kings, ruled without 
the need of fighting for his throne. Eor that reason men called him 
Edgar the Peaceful. Again, as under Edred, Dunstan became the 
king's chief adviser. He was made archbishop of Canterbury, and 
the crown became powerful and the country prosperous under his 
strong but conciliatory government. A great proof of Dunstan's 
willingness to make sacrifices to keep the peace was to be seen in 
the dealings between England and Scotland. In the weak days 
of division the Scots had taken possession of the border fortress 
of Edinburgh, hitherto the northernmost ISTorthumbrian town. 
To avoid war and obtain the goodwill of the Scots, Edgar yielded 
Tip to their king the Northumbrian district called Lothian. Up 
to now the Scots had been Highland Celts, but since Edmund's 
cession of Cumbria the Scottish kings had had Welsh subjects. 
Now they had English subjects also. And before long the English 
element grew, ujitil the modern Scottish Lowlands became English- 
speaking and very like England, and only the Highlands retained 
the Celtic tongue and manners of the old Scots. 

9. The kings and chieftains of Britain gladly acknowledged the 
overlordship of a monarch so just and strong as Edgar. It is said 
Edgar as ^^^^ ^^ ^^® occasion he went to Chester, where he met 
empepop of six under-kings, who all took oaths to be faithful to 
Bpitam. him ; and that the six kings rowed their overlord in a 
boat up the Dee to the Church of St. John's, outside the walls. The 
six were the king of Scots, his vassal the king of Cumberland, the 
Danish king of Man, and three Welsh kings. Even the Danish 
kings who ruled over the coast towns of Ireland submitted them- 
selves to his dominion. It was no wonder that Edgar, like Edwy, 
took upon himseK high-sounding titles. He called himself emperor, 
Augustus, and Basileus of Britain. Under him the process that 
begins with Alfred attains its culminating point. Edgar was the 
most mighty of English kings before the Norman conq[uest. 

10. At home Edgar ruled sternly, but so justly, that the only 
fault that his subjects could find with him was that he loved 
Dunstan foreigners too much. The chief event of this time was 
and the a religious revival, which Dunstan did much to foster, 
rl^var""^ Despite Alfred's strenuous efforts at reform, the Church 

remained corrupt and sluggish. In particular, the 
monasteries were in a very lax state. Dunstan was first famous 
as the reformer of his own abbey of Glastonbury. He became 



i 



-975-] BEGINNINGS OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHY 55 

more eager for reform after his exile. Wlien abroad lie had seen 
the good results which had happened from a monastic revival that 
had already been brought about on the continent. Brought back 
to power, he strove with all his might to revive in England the 
spirit of the austere Benedictine rule which derived its name from 
St. Benedict of ISTursia, the father of all later monasticism, who 
lived in the sixth century, and whose system St. Augustine had 
first introduced into this country. Dunstan was anxious to make 
the easy-going monks of England live the same strict life of 
poverty, chastity, and obedience which St. Benedict had enjoined, 
and which he had seen in operation during his banishment. More- 
over, he felt sure that the career of the monk was hig'her and nobler 
than that of the secular clerk, who held property, married, and 
generally lived a self-indulgent and easy-going life. By this time 
m^any of the monasteries of earlier days had been changed into 
what were called churches of secular canons — that is to say, they 
were served by clergymen who did not take the monastic vows, 
but lived in the world side by side with laymen. Dunstan was 
disgusted at the lax ways of the secular canons, and did his best 
to drive them out of their churches, and put Benedictine monks in 
their place. But the canons were often men of high birth, and 
had powerful friends among the nobles, who disliked Dunstan's 
policy even in matters of state. Hence the attempt to supersede 
canons by monks met with much opposition, and Dunstan, who 
was a very prudent man, took care not to go too far in upholding 
the monks. Yet he managed to establish monks in his own 
cathedral of Christ Church, Canterbury, which henceforth remained 
a Benedictine monastery until the Reformation. Some of his 
fellow-workers were less cautious than Dunstan, and the struggle 
of monk and canon led to almost as much fighting as the contest 
"between the West Saxons and the Mercians. As long as Edgar 
lived, however, Dunstan managed to keep the two parties from 
open hostilities. 

11. Edgar died in 975, and with him ended the greatness of the 
West Saxon house. He left two sons by different mothers. Their 
names were Edward and Ethelred. North and south, Edward the 
friends of monks and friends of canons, quarrelled as to Martjnp, 
which of the two boys should become king. For the * 

moment the influence of Dunstan secured the throne for Edward, 
the elder son. For four years the great archbishop went on ruling 
the kingdom as ia the days of Edgar. But his task was much 
iarder now that he was virtually single-handed. In 978 the young 



BEGINNINGS OF THE ENGLISH MONARCHY [978. 

king was stabbed in the back, it was believed, at the instigation of 
his step-mother, who wished her own son, Ethelred, to mount the 
throne. This cruel death gave Edward the name of Edward the 
Martyr. His half-brother, Ethelred 11., succeeded to the throne 
prepared for him by his mother's crime. 

12. Dunstan's last important public act was to crown the new 
monarch. Soon afterwards the great archbishop withdrew from 

political affairs, and devoted what life was still left to 
D^^ Tan^ °^ ^^ ^^ '^'^ government of the Church and the carrying 

on of the monastic revival. He lived long enough to> 
see the peace, which Edgar and he had upheld, utterly banished 
from the land, and to witness the ruin of the religious reforma- 
tion amidst the tumults of a dreary period of civil strife and 
renewed invasion. He was the first great English statesman 
who was not a king and a warrior. In after days monks, who 
wrote his life, glorified him as the friend of monks with such exces- 
sive zeal that the wise statesman, who did so much to bring about 
the unity of England, was hidden underneath the monastic zealot 
and the strenuous saint. Yet, both as a prelate and as a politician, 
Dunstan did a great work for his country. In him the impulse to 
union and civilization, which began with Alfred, attained its highest 
point. He closes the great century which beg'ins with the treaty of 
Chippenham, and ends with the murder of Edward the Martyr. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE DECLINE OF THE ENGLISH KINGDOM 
AND THE DANISH CONQUEST (978-1042) 

Chief Dates: 

978-1016. Reign of Ethelred the Unready. 

1002. Massacre of St. Brice's Day. 

1013. Swegen's conquest of England. 

1016. Rivalry of Edmund Ironside and Cnut. 

1017-1035. Reign of Cnut. 

1035-1037. Regency of Harold Harefoot. 

1037-IO40. Reign of Harold Harefoot. 

1040-1042. Reign of Harthacnut. 

1. The long reig-n of Etlielred 11. (978-1016) was a period of 
ever-deepening confusion. At first the king was a boy, and the 
nobles managed things as they wished. But after Ethelred the 
Ethelred became a man things grew steadily worse. Unready, 
The son of Edgar had none of the great qualities of ^'3-1016. 
his race. Quarrelsome, jealous, and suspicious, he was always 
irritating his nobles by trying to win greater power for himself. 
Yet he was too weak and foolish to know what to do with the 
authority which he inherited. In scorn men called him Ethelred 
the Unready — that is, the Bedeless, the man without rede, or good 
counsel. Under his nerveless sway the unity of the kingdom began 
to break up. Local jealousies and personal feuds set the great men 
by the ears, and the guiding hand of a wise monarch was no longer 
to be expected. 

2. To make matters worse the Danish invasions soon began 
again. Now that the Danes in England had become Englishmen, 
their kinsfolk beyond sea, learning the helplessness of Renewal of 
the land, again began to send plundering expeditions the Danish 
to its shores. Ethelred was too cowardly and lazy to invasions, 
meet the pirate hordes with an adequate force of armed men. He 
persuaded his nobles to impose a tax on land, whereby a large sum 
of money was collected to buy them off. The Danes took the bribe 
and departed, but naturally they came again and wanted more. 

57 



58 THE DANISH CONQUEST [978- 

Before long Danegeld, so this tax was called, was regularly levied, 
but every year the horrors of Danish invasion became 
Danegeld. ^^j-g^ ^j^^ worse. As another means of conciliating the 
Danes, Ethelred married Emma of Normandy, the daughter of the 
duke of the Normans, who was himself a Norseman by descent, 
and the ally of the Danish kings. 

3. In the same, year as his marriage, Ethelred, with equal folly 
and treachery, ordered all the Danes that hapi^ened to be living in 
England to be put to death. The day chosen for this evil deed 
Massacpe of ^^^ ^*- Price's Day, November 13, 1002. Tidings of 
St. Briee's the massacre only served to infuriate the Danes in 
Day, 1002. ^ Denmark ; and Swegen, their king, resolved to revenge 
his slaughtered countrymen by undertaking a regular conquest of 
Ethelred's kingdom. The state of the Scandinavian north was 
different from what it had been in the days of Alfred. There was 
now a strong king ruling all Denmark, and another ruling all 
Norway. In earlier days the Danes came in comiDaratively small 
and detached bands, wliose greatest hope was to conquer and colonize 
some one district of England. It was now possible for the king 
of aU Denmark to invade England with an army big enough 
to tax all the resources of the country. In 1003 Swegen carried 
out his threat. He came to England with a large fleet and 
army, and set to work to conquer it. Ethelred made few 

attempts to organize resistance to him, and, though 
^askms some districts fought bravely and checked the Danish 

advance, there was no central force drawn from the 
whole country capable of withstanding the foe. Eor the next ten 
years England suffered unspeakable misery. One famous incident 
of the struggle was the cruel death of the archbishop of Canter- 
bury, ^Hheah, or Alphege, whom the Danes, after a drunken 
revel, pelted to death with bones because he would not con- 
sent to impoverish the poor husbandmen who farmed his lands 
by raising from them the heavy ransom demanded by the in- 
vaders. Alphege was declared a saint, and his memory long held 
in honour. 

4. At last Englishmen began to see it was no use resisting 
Swegen, or in upholding so wretched a king as Ethelred. In 1013 
The pule of *^^ Danish king again appeared in England and easily 
Swegen, conquered the greater part of the country. There- 
1013-1014. ^p^j^ Ethelred fled to Normandy, the country of his 
wife. His withdrawal left Swegen the real ruler of England. Had 
he been a Christian, the English might well have chosen him as 



-IOI7.] THE DANISH CONQUEST 59 

their king. As it was, some districts still resisted wlien Swegen 
died in 1014. 

5. The Danish soldiers chose Swegen's son Cnut as their king. 
Cnut was as good a soldier as his father. Moreover, he was a 
Christian and a wise and prudent man. But the E+jjeiped's 
English still regretted their old king, and some of return, 
them foolishly asked Ethelred to come back from Nor- ^*^^^' ^/if.^ 
mandy and take up his kingship again, Ethelred re- 
turned, and war went on between him and Cnut until 1016, when 
Ethelred died. 

6. E their ed's successor was a man of very different stamp. 
Edmund, his son before his marriage with Emma, was a strenuous 
warrior, st) valiant and persistent that men called him ^^^ rivalry 
Edmund Ironside. In him Cnut found a worthy foe, of Edmund 
and a mighty struggle ensued between the two rivals. Ironside and 
which made the year 1016 as memorable in military 

history as the " year of battles " in the midst of which Alfred 
mounted the throne. Six pitched battles were fought, the most 
famous of which was one at Assandun (now Ashington), in Essex, 
in which Cnut won the day. In the long run neither side obtained 
a complete triumph over the other, and before the end of the year 
the two kings met at Olney, an island in the Severn, near 
Grloucester, where they agreed to divide England between them. 
By the treaty of Olney, Cnut took Northumbria and Mercia, and 
Edmund, Wessex, A little later Edmund died, and in 1017 the 
nobles of Wessex, weary of fighting, chose Cnut as their ruler, 

7. Cnut thus became king, first of part and then of the whole 
of England, very much as Edgar had done. Though his real 
claim to the throne was not the choice of the people, 

but his right as a conquerer, he soon proved himseK j 017-1035 
an excellent king. Under him the prosperity of 
Edgar's days was renewed. He sent home most of his Danish 
troops, chose English advisers, and married Emma, Ethelred's 
widow, so as to connect himself as closely as possible with the 
West Saxon royal house. He promised Danes and English in 
England to rule according to King Edgar's law. But Cnut was 
king of Denmark as well as of England, and a few years later 
became king of Norway also. Visions of a great northern empire 
rivalling the realm of the German emperors, who still called them- 
selves emperors of Rome, may well have floated before liis mind. 
But he was wise enough to make England, not Denmark, the centre 
of his power. Rough as England then was, Scandinavia was still 



6o THE DANISH CONQUEST [1017- 

ruder. It was still largely heathen ; and tlie only way in wMch the 
power of Cnut could be kept together there was for him to use 
English bishops and monks to help him in civilizing and teaching 
the faith to his born subjects in the north. But though EngKsh- 
men thus found new careers in the service of their conqueror, the 
cares of his great empire compelled Cnut to absent himself from 
England for long periods. Besides necessary journeys to his 
northern kingdoms, he made a pilgrimage to Rome, whence he 
wrote a touching letter to his subjects, declaring that he had 
" vowed to live a right life in all things, to rule justly and piously, 
and to administer just judgment to all." He steadily lived up to 
the liigh ideal thus set out before him, and in every way proved 
himself to be one of the best of our kings. He was enabled to 
rule his realm strongly, as he kept up a sort of standing army in a 
force of two or three thousand Souse carles, or palace guards, whom 
he paid well and kept under discipline. It was dangerous to rebel 
against a monarch with such a force always ready at his disposal. 

8. Early in his reign Cnut divided England into four parts. 
One of these, Wessex, he kept for himseK, but the other 

three, Mercia, N^orthumberland, and East Anglia, he 
eapldon^ handed over to be governed by great earls, or, as they 

had been called in earlier days, aldermen. Before his 
death he seems also to have assigned Wessex to an earl. For this 
important post he chose a wealthy, eloquent, and shrewd English- 
man named Grodwin, whom he married to a lady of the Danish 
royal stock, and to whom he showed many other signs of favour. 
As long as Cnut lived these great earls remained faithful to him, 
but their establishment was a dangerous experiment. They were 
necessarily entrusted with a great deal of power. When they had be- 
come well estabKshed in their jurisdictions they made themselves the 
centres of the old local traditions that still remained strong, despite 
a century and a haK of centraKzation. Things grew worse when 
son succeeded father in the earldoms as in the ancient sub-king- 
doms that had preceded them. Finally, the great earldoms revived 
in fact, if not in name, the separatist feelings of Mercia, North- 
umbria, and Wessex. The next half-century showed the realm of 
Edgar gradually splitting up into its ancient threefold division. 

9. Cnut died in 1035. He left two sons, Harold, the firstborn, 
and Harthacnut, his son by Emma of ^N'ormandy. A meeting of 
the wise men took place at Oxford to decide how the succession 
was to be settled. Party feeling ran high, and Leofric, earl of 
Mercia, stood in fierce antagonism to G-odwin, earl of Wessex. 



-I042.] THE DANISH CONQUEST 6i 

Godwin and the West Saxons wished to make Harthacniit king", 
hut he was away in Denmark, and this fact played into the hands 
of Leofric, who was supported by north and midlands „ . , „ 
in his efforts to uphold the cause of Harold. FinaUy, foot and 
as a compromise, it was as-reed to make Harold regrent of Harthacnut, 
all England, on behaK of himself and his absent brother. 
This suggests that a division of the kingdom was contemplated, 
but for more than a year England had no king at all. However. 
Harthacnut abode obstinately in Denmark, and neither Godwin 
nor Emma could long maiutain the rights of an absentee claimant. 
In 1037 Harold was definitely chosen king. He drove Emma out 
of the country, and reigned until his death in 1040. Harthacnut 
was then at Bruges, in Flanders, where his mother lived, and was 
waiting with an army in the hope of invading England. He was at 
once senl for, and elected king of all England. He showed great 
sternness to his enemies, casting his dead brother's body into a 
sewer, and levying heavy taxes on those who had resisted his 
authority. He was much under Emma his mother's influence, and 
to please her called home from Normandy her son by King Ethelred, 
whose name was Edward. However, Harthacnut proved a bad 
ruler, and, says the Chronicle, " did nothing like a king during his 
whole reign." In 1042 he died suddenly at the wedding-feast of 
one of his nobles. With him expired ignominiously the Danish 
line of kings which had begun so well with his father. The 
influence of Emma and Godwin secured the succession for his 
half-brother Edward, and Englishmen rejoiced that the son of 
Ethelred had obtained his true natural right to the throne of his 
ancestors. 

GENEALOGY OF THE DANISH KINGS 

Swegen. 

I 
Cnut, m. (2) Emma of Normandyo 

I (2) 



Harold Harefoox. Harthacnut. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE REIGNS OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR 
AND HAROLD (1042-1066) 

Chief Dates : 

1042. Accession of Edward the Confessor. 

1052. Godwin's return from exile, and death. 

1064. Harold's Welsh war. 

1066. Jan. 5, Death of Edward the Confessor. Jan. 6,. Accession of 

Harold, son of Godwin. Sept. 25, Battle of Stamford Bridge. 

Oct. 14, Battle of Hastings. Dec. 25, Coronation of William 

the Conqueror. 

1. Edward, the new king, was nearly forty years old when lie was 

called to the throne of his ancestors. Driven from England as a 

Character ^^^® child, he had been brought up in his mother's 

and rule of land of !N'ormandy, and was IN'orman rather than 

Edward the English in speech, manners, and tastes. A pious, 

affectionate, gentle, well-educated man, his outlook on 

life was that of the cultivated ^NTorman cleric rather than that 

of the hard-fighting English warrior-king. His austerity and 

religious zeal gave him such a reputation for sanctity that he was 

canonized after his death, and became famous among royal saints as 

Edward the Confessor. But he was of weak health, feeble character, 

and somewhat childish disposition. He was too old and sluggish 

to learn anything fresh, and too wanting in self-confidence to be 

able to live without favourites and dependants. Under such a 

weakling the g-overnment of the country passed largely into the 

hands of the great earls, such as Siward of !N"orthumbria, Leofric 

of Mercia, and, above aU, Godwin of Wessex. It was Godwin wha 

had secured Edward his throne, and for long the king leant upoa 

his strong and resolute counsel. Godwin's chief helpers were his 

vigorous young sons, chief among whom were Harold and Tostig, 

who held dependent earldoms under their father. Godwin's 

daughter Edith became King Edward's wife, and for a time aE 

seemed to go well. But Edward had little sympathy with his wife's 

strenuous kinsfolk, and gradually gave his chief confidence to 

62 



I042.] EDWARD THE CONFESSOR AND HAROLD 63 

Norman clerks, soldiers, and adventurers, who crossed over to 
J]ngland, hoping* to win a career in a country whose monarch was 
so devoted to Normans and Norman ways. Thus it happened 
that England, which had withstood successfully all foreign influence 
when ruled by her Danish sovereigns, was threatened with some- 
thing like foreign domination as the result of the restoration of the 
old line of kings. 

2. The Normans had many great qualities that explain Edward's 
devotion to the land of his mother's kinsfolk. Though little more 
than a hundred years had passed since Rolf and his Nopmandy 
followers had established themselves in their new and the 
homes in northern France, the Norman duchy had Normans, 
already won a notable place for itself in western Europe. The same 
ready sympathy for the people among whom their lot was cast, 
which had rapidly made Englishmen of the Northmen of the 
Danelaw, had made Frenchmen of the Northmen on the banks 
of the Seine. They had dropped their old tongue and spoke French. 
They had adopted French customs and manners. But like the 
Anglo-Danes of England, the Normans retained much of the 
energy and fierceness of their pirate ancestors. They were more 
active, enterprising, and vigorous than most Frenchmen. They 
took up with every new movement, were great champions of the 
growing authority of the Church, and were learning* the newest 
fashions of fighting, ruling, and holding land. Their duke, though 
a subject of the French king, was quite as powerful as his master, 
and was generally strong enough to restrain his turbulent, unruly 
subjects. The duke of the Normans at that time was Edward's 
cousin William. "William had come to the throne as a child with 
a disputed title. But he had from earliest manhood shown so 
much activity and skill that he had put down the revolts of his 
fierce nobles, and made himself almost a despot. The gentle 
English king always looked up greatly to his stern cousin, and 
gladly took his advice. 

3. From the beginning of the reign many Normans were raised 
by royal favour to eminent positions in Church and State in Eng- 
land. They were not always the best of their class, for 

Edward had very little discrimination in his friend- ^|n °land"^ 
ships. One Norman friend of Edward's was a bishop, 
" who," said the English chronicler, " did nought bishop-like ; " 
and a Norman raised by Edward to an English earldom became 
infamous in his new home as the " timid earl." Highest in rank 
among Edward's Norman favourites was Robert, abbot of Jumieges, 



64 EDWARD. THE CONFESSOR AND HAROLD [105 1- 

who, to tlie disgust of Englisliinen, was made arclibisliop of Canter- 
bury. After ten years tlie IS'ormans liad won so many places and 
estates that a loud outcry was raised against them. Godwin and 
his sons, who gradually lost all iufluence over the king, made them- 
selves the spokesmen of the national hatred of the foreigners. In 
1051 they gathered together an army and prepared to drive the 
Normans from court. But the old jealousy of Wessex and 
its earl was still strong in the north and midlands. Siward of 
Xorthumhria and Leofric of Mercia took sides with Edward and 
his Normans against the house of Godwin. Godwin could not at 
A d the ^'^ moment resist such odds. His army melted away ; 

exile of he and his sons were banished, and his daughter was 

^°^y^in, gQjj^-(j \^j jj^Qj, husband into a nunnery. Soon after, as 

if to complete the Norman triumph, William, duke 
of Normandy, came to England with a great company of French- 
men, and was royally received by his cousin. Edward, who had 
no children and no near relations, seems to have promised William 
to make him his successor to the throne. Thus the permanence of 
Norman influence seemed assured. 

4. Godwin and Harold did not remain long in exile. In 1052 
they gathered together a fleet and an army, sailed up the Thames, 
The return ^^^ beset London. Edward and his Normans collected 
and death another army to withstand them ; but the English 
?n?9^^^"' People were so strongly on Godwin's side that even 

Edward's soldiers were loath to fight for him. They 
said to each other that they ought not to fight against their own 
countrymen, and insisted upon negotiating with the invaders. 
Edward was powerless in their hands, as there were not enough 
Normans to make a good show in a battle. The result was that 
Godwin and Harold were restored to their earldoms, " as fully and 
freely as they had possessed them before." " And then," writes the 
English chronicler, "they outlawed all the Frenchmen who had 
judged unjust judgments and had given ill counsel, save only such 
as they agreed upon whom the king liked to have with him and 
were true to his people." Archbishop Robert and two other 
Norman bishops escaped with difficulty beyond sea ; and EngKsh- 
men were appointed as their successors, the new archbishop's name 
being Stigand. Edith came back from her cloister to her husband's 
court. The threatened tide of Norman invasion was driven back 
for the rest of Edward's lifetime. 

5. Godwin died soon after his restoration, and Harold then 
Decame earl of the West Saxons. He was a brave warrior and a 



-1064.] EDWARD THE CONFESSOR AND HAROLD 65 

shrewd and self-seeking statesman, strong enough to dominate the 
will of his weak brother-in-law and control his policy. When 
Earl Siward died Harold made his brother Tostig Harold earl 
earl of Northnmbria in his place, while his younger of the West 
brothers, G-nrth and Leofwine, were made earls of East ^^^^^^s. 
Anglia and Kent. Two-thirds of England was now directly ruled 
by the house of Godwin. After this Leof ric of Mercia was the only 
great earl who was independent of Harold. He soon died, but his 
son ^If gar secured the succession to Mercia, and tried to strengthen 
himseK by making an alliance with his Welsh neighbours. The 
Welsh were excellent soldiers, but as a rule they were too much 
divided ujider the rule of rival kings, and too jealous of each 
other to be able to make headway against the English. It 
happened, however, at this time that a very powerful Welsh prince, 
Griffith ap Llewelyn — that is, " son of Llewelyn," had defeated 
all his rivals, and had made himself king over all Wales. Griffith 
married Earl -3]lfgar's daug'hter, Ealdgyth, and became his close 
friend ; but ^Kgar soon died, and the Mercian alliance profited 
him very little. At last, in 1064, Harold led an army into Wales, 
and overran the country. The Welsh suffered so cruelly that 
they abandoned their own king, and made their submission to 
Harold. Soon Griffith was murdered by some of his own subjects, 
and Harold divided his dominions among Bleddyn and Rhiwallon, 
two representatives of a rival family. For the first time since the 
days of Offa, the English boundary was pushed westwards at the 
expense of the Welsh as far as the Clwyd, the Radnor moors, and 
the Usk. Harold himself married Griffith's widow, the daughter of 
the Mercian earl. Her brother Edwin, now earl of Mercia, was not 
strong enough to give Harold any trouble. 

THE HOUSE OF GODWIN 
Godwin. 



King Harold. Tostig. Gurth. Leofwine. Edith, 

m. Ealdfiryth, m. Edward the 

dau. of ^ifgar. Confessor. 

THE HOUSE OF LEOFRIC 

Leof ric. 

I 
iElfgar. 



Edwin. Morcar. Ealdgyth, 

m. (1) Griffith ap 



Llewelyn ; (2) Harold, 
son of Godwin. 



66 EDWARD THE CONFESSOR AND HAROLD [1066- 

6. Tlie only foes Harold now feared were tliose of liis own house- 
hold. His brother Tostig ruled so badly over the I^orthumbrians 

that they rose in revolt against him, and forced Edward 
Edwap?the ^o banish him. They chose as his successor Morcar, 
Confessor, the brother of Edwin of Mercia. It was the greatest 
^°^^* blow that Harold's power had received, and was the 

more formidable since the king's health was now breaking up. 
Since the expulsion of the Normans, Edward had withdrawn him- 
self more and more from politics. His chief interest now was in 
building a new monastery dedicated to St. Peter on a marsh hard 
by the river Thames, some distance to the west of London, in a 
region which took from the king's foundation its later name of 
Westminster. He just lived long enough to witness the com- 
pletion of the magnificent church which ^N'orman craftsmen had 
erected for him in honour of his favourite saint. On Innocents' 
Day, December 28, the abbey church was dedicated, but Edward 
was too ill to be present. He died on January 5, 1066, and the very 
next day was buried behind the high altar of St. Peter's Church. 
Miracles, it was believed, were worked by his remains as attestation 
of his claims to sanctity. 

7. The same day that Edward was buried, Harold was chosen 
king, and crowned in the new abbey. For many years he had been 
The reign king in all but name, and it seemed the easiest course 
of Harold, to give him the office which his ambition had doubt- 
luou. -j^ggg Xom^ coveted. But though the old English throne 
was in a sense elective, the choice of Harold constituted a real 
revolution. Save in the case of the Danish kings, the Witenagemot, 
or Council of the Nobles, had never gone outside the sacred house 
of Cerdic in their choice of the ruler. All that election had really 
meant hitherto was some liberty of deciding which member of the 
royal house should mount the throne, and this freedom of choice 
was limited in substance to preferring a brother of the late king 
who was old enough to govern, to his children who were still under 
age. Even the election of Cnut was no real exception, since it 
was simply the recognition of the power of a foreign conqueror. 
But Harold was in possession of power, and it is hardly likely that 
the Witenagemot had much really to say in the matter. The 
nearest heir to the dead king was his great-nephew, Edgar the 
^theling, a grandson of Edmund Ironside, a mere boy, and very 
Kttle known. Practically the same course was pursued as in France, 
where in 987 Hugh Capet, the greatest of the French nobles, was 
made king in preference to the heir of the house of Charles the 



-io66.] EDWARD THE CONFESSOR ANp HAROLD 6/ 

Oreat. French history showed that Hugh, though the strongest of 
dukes, was the weakest of kings. It was the same with HarokT. 
He had not the mysterious dignity which came from membership 
of the sacred royal house. His brother earls were jealous of him, 



England at the death 
of Edward the Confessor. 

English Miles 



House of Godwin., f^ 
House of Leofric...^^ 
Other Families. 
Wales 

,^^x ~ William I's march ffom 

XV\V^ ■■ 'i-5^^ -^^^v^T^feiseu to London^^ 

^ f^ \. ^,v. Siumfferd Bridg-e 




Emery U'alkex sc 



and thought themselves as good as he was. Thus the election of 
Harold proved a failure ; and with all his energy and strenuousness 
Jie was not able to hold his newly won throne for a year. 

8. William of isTormandy had not forgotten the promises made 



6S EDWARD THE CONFESSOR AND HAROLD [1066- 

Tiim by Edward in 1051. Two or three years before bis accession 
Harold bad been shipwrecked in France. Tbe lord of the dis- 
trict where the wreck had taken jjlace threw him 
William of ^^^ prison. William procured his release, and enter- 
prepara- tained him with great kindness at his court. However, 
tions fop . before he allowed Harold to go home, William had 
invasion. forced liim to take an oath that he would heli^ him to 
become king of England after Edward's death. The Norman duke 
now claimed the crown as King Edward's heir, and denounced 
Harold as a perjurer for breaking his oath. He began at once 
making preparations for invading Eng'land, and many adventurers 
from all parts of France joined with his K"orman subjects in 
an expedition which held out great prospects of glory, pay, and 
booty. Moreover, the pope gave his support to the expedition. 
Stigand, the archbishop of Canterbury, had taken the place of 
Robert of Jumieges without asking the pope's permission, and had 
offended Rome by other irregularities. All therefore who joined 
William were looked upon as fig'hting for the cause of the Church. 

9. Before William's exx^edition was ready another trouble came 
upon England. Tostig, the sometime earl of Northumbria, hear- 
Tostig and ^^8" ^^ -^^^ brother's elevation to the throne, was 
Harold anxious to win his earldom back by force. With this 
Hardpada. object he made an alliance with the king of the Nor- 
wegians, Harold Sardrada — that is, Sard rede, or Stern in Counsel. 
Hardrada was a true descendant of the Norse pirates, and had had 
adventures and expeditions in many lands. He gladly took up 
Tostig's cause, hoping, perhaps, that if successful he might, like 
Cnut, rule over England as well as his own land. In September 
the fleet of Harold and Tostig sailed up the Humber. Earl Morcar 
came to defend his earldom, and his brother Edwin joined him 
with the Mercian levies. But they were defeated by the invaders 
at Fulford, and on September 20 the victors took possession of 
York. 

10. When the Norwegians landed, King Harold was in the south, 
waiting anxiously lest William should cross the Channel. He at 
Battle of ^^^® proceeded northwards, and joined his forces with 
Stamford those of the northern earls. On his arrival Hardrada 
siptf 25 ^^^ Tostig took up a position at Stamford Bridge on 

the Derwent, a few miles east of York. On Sep- 
tember 25 Harold fell stoutly upon them. The English won a com- 
plete victory. Tostig and the Norwegian king were slain, and the 
survivors of the northern host gladly made peace, and returned 



-io66.] EDWARD THE CONFESSOR AND HAROLD 69 

home. It was the last of the great ]Krorse invasions, and the defeat 
of so famous a hero as Hardrada proved once more the skill of 
Harold as a soldier. 

11. Tlu-ee days after the battle of Stamford Bridge, William 
of Normandy crossed the Channel. Landing at Pevensey in 
Sussex, he made Hastings his headquarters, and set up Landing of 
there a wooden castle. On news of his arrival reaching William, 
York. Harold at once hurried southwards to meet the ^^P^* 28. 
Norman invasion. But Edwin and Morcar did not follow him, 
though he had saved the latter his earldom. Very few of the heroes 
of Stamford Bridge accompanied Harold against his new enemy ; 
and he paused in London while the levies of the soutli country 
poured in to reinforce his scanty ranks. Tidings came that the 
Normans were horrihly wasting the lands near the coast, and Harold 
resolved to march out of London and give battle to them. He 
led Ms troops to witliin seven miles of Hastings, when he 
halted, took up a strong position on the liill, on which the town of 
Battle now stands, and passed the nig^ht of October 13. The place 
was far removed from human habitations, and had not even a name. 
For that reason the fight which was to be fought next day took its 
name from Hastings, the nearest town. 

12. Early on the morning of October 14 the English saw William 
and his Normans arrayed on another ridge, some distance to the 
south of the hill on which they were posted. The Battle of 
great battle beg-an soon afterwards. It was a struggle, Hastings, 
not only between two nations, but between two different ^^^' ^ ^* 
schools of warfare. After the fashion of both English and Danes, 
Harold's army fought on foot. The best soldiers, including 
Harold's house-carles and personal followers, were arrayed on the 
top of the hill, facing southwards towards the enemy. They were 
armed with helmets and long coats of chain-mail, and their chief 
weapons were axes, broadswords, and heavy javelins, which they 
hurled at the enemy. They stood shoulder to shoulder in close 
array, and protected themselves with their long*, kite-shaped shields, 
which interlocked with each other so as to form a shield-wall^ 
which it was difficult for the enemy to break through. On the two 
wings of the main array, where the jDrecipitous nature of the 
ground made a frontal attack very difficult, were stationed the 
swarms of ill-covered but zealous countryfolk, who had flocked to 
the king's standards to defend their country against the foreigner. 
Harold ordered his troops to maintain their close order, and on 
no account to break their ranks by pursuing the enemy. 



7© EDWARD THE CONFESSOR AND HAROLD [1066- 

13. Tlie ISTormans prepared to fight after the newer fashion 
which had recently grown up in France. The infantry, mostly 
Theeaply archers, were sent on in advance to wear down the 
stages of enemy by volleys of arrows. But their shafts had 
the fight. ^gj.y Y\m<d effect, and the shield- wall still remained 
unbroken on the crest of the hiU. Then came the turn of the 
cavalry, in whom William placed his chief confidence. The best 
soldiers of the Norman host fought on horseback, wearing helmets 
and armour very similar in pattern to that of the English, and pro- 
tecting themselves by great shields, also of the same type as those 
of their foes. Their chief weapon was a long lance, but they also 
used swords at close quarters. In the centre of the ISTorman line 
was Duke William with his brothers, Odo, bishop of Bayeux, a 
hard-fighting prelate, and Robert, count of Mortaia. Around him 
were his ISTormans, and against them the shield-wall of Harold. 
The right and left wings of William's army were held by his French 
and Breton mercenaries ; these were opposed to the lightly armed 
levies on the wings of the English host. 

14. Time after time the Norman army charged on horseback up 
the slopes of the hiLl. Each time they failed to break through the 

impenetrable shield- wall, and retired discomfited to 
of WilUam^ their original position. But WiUiam was a shrewder 
and the commander than the English king. His troops were 

death of ))etter eq^uipped, and more easily moved; they could 

shift their position and method of attack at will; 
while all that the English could do was to stand fii-m in their ranks 
and await each fresh assault. Finding Harold's centre quite im- 
penetrable, William threw his main energy into assailing the lightly 
armed troops of the wing's. His archers discharged repeated flights 
of arrows, which spread havoc among the unarmoured English 
peasantry ; and in order to lure them to break through their close 
formation, the Norman cavalry were ordered by their duke to pre- 
tend to run away. The English believed that they had gained the 
victory. Bashly breaking their ranks, they rushed down the slopes 
of the hill in pursuit. Then the Normans turned, and it was soon 
found that in open fighting the bravest of foot soldiers were no 
match against the mail-clad horsemen. The Normans thus gained 
access to the crest of the hill, and furiously attacked the tried troops 
on Harold's centre, who alone still maintained a semblance of 
order. The Norman archers now shot their arrows hig'h into the 
air, so that they might fall on the English from above. One 
shaft struck Harold in the eye, and he fell, bravely fighting to the 



•io66.] EDWARD THE CONFESSOR AND HAROLD 



71 



last, close by his own standard. With him died his brothers Gurth 
and Leofwine, and the bravest of his followers. The day was now 
won, and at nightfall the Normans pitched tkeir tents upon the 
blood-stained field. In pious memory of his victory William erected 
an abbey for monks on the site of the English lines, and called it 
the Abbey of the Battle, a name which also attached itself to the 
little town that grew up round its walls. The liigh altar of th.e 




a. Site of Abbey Church, the X marks 

the position of High Altar, (Harold's Standard. 



EmeryWalket sc 



BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 



abbey church, marked the spot on the crest of the ridge where 
Harold's banner had once stood. 

15. In the weeks succeeding the battle WiUiam busied himself 
with securing the strong places in the south-eastern counties. 
Edwin and Morcar at last appeared in London with 
their troops. The Witenagemot met and chose Edgar ^q London 
the ^theling as king of the English. Thereupon and corona- 
the two earls went home with their men, leaving -^in^i^, t 
London and the south to depend upon their own 
resources. William then advanced almost to the gates of London, 
but made no effort to attack it. He next marched up the Thames 



72 



EDWARD THE CONEESSOR AND HAROLD [1066. 



valley as far as Wallingford, crossed tlie river, and approached 
London from tlie north, so as to cut off all hope of succour in case 
the two earls once more chang-ed their minds, and reassembled their 
levies. The best soldiers of Wessex and the south lay dead at 
Hastings, and there was no hope of opposing the conqueror without 
the help of the north and midlands. In these circumstances the 
West Saxon nobles thought further resistance useless. With Edgar 
at their head, they soug'ht out William and accepted him, like another 
Cnut, as their king. On Christmas Day, December 25, William was 
crowned king* in Westminster Abbey, which thus within a year 
of its completion saw two coronations and one royal burial. The 
first stage of the Norman conquest of England was completed when 
the duke of the Normans became the king of the EngKsh. 

GENEALOGY OF OLD ENGLISH KINGS OF THE HOUSE 

OF CERDIC 
Egbert, 802-839. 

I 
EthelwulFj 839-868. 



Ethelbald, 
858-860. 



Ethelbert, 
860-866. 



Ethelred, 
866-871. 



Alfred, 
871-899. 



Edward the Elder, 

899-924. 



Athelstan, 
924-940. 



Edmund, 
940-946. 



Edred, 
946-955. 



Edwy, 

955-959. 



Edgar, 
959-975. 



Edith, m. 
Otto the Saxon, 
afterwards the 

Emperor 
Otto I. 



dau. m. 
Charles the 

Simple, 

king of the 

West 

Franks. 



dau. m. 

Hugh, 
duke 

of the 
French. 



Edward the Martyr, 
975-978. 



Ethelred the Unready, 

978-1016, m. (2) Emma 

of Normandy. 



Edmund Ironside, 
1016. 

I 
Edward. 



(2) 



Edward the Confessor, 

1042-1066, m. Edith, 

dau. of Godwin. 



Edgar the 
.(Etheling. 



St. Margaret, 

m. Malcolm Canmore, 

king of Scots. 

Matilda, m. Henry I., 1100-1135. 

(See table on page 157.) 



CHAPTER IX 

ENGLISH LIFE BEFORE THE NORMAN 

CONQUEST 

1. Before the Norman conquest England stood almost isolated 
from the rest of the world, JSTot only was there little intercourse 
between our island and lands heyond sea ; there 
were few dealings between different districts in Eng- ^^J\°^^j"*'® 
land, and each single group of villagers lived a life of tenure 
its own, self-sufficing and self-contained, and cut off before the 
from intercourse with any but its nearest neigh- gQ^r^est 
hours. The English were a nation of farmers and 
herdsmen, tilling their fields and watching their cattle after the 
fashion of their forefathers, and dwelling either in scattered 
homesteads or in little villages, whose houses were placed to- 
gether for mutual protection, and surrounded by a quickset 
hedge. Land held by individuals was called folhlcmd, when 
the title to its possession depended upon witness of the people 
and common fame. It was called hooMand when the owner's 
claim to it was based upon a written document, a book or 
charter. Most free Englishmen held land of their own. But 
when harvest was over all the villagers had the right to feed their 
flock upon their neighbours' fields as well as their own ; and there 
were wide coTnmons and wastes which belonged to the community 
as a whole. The chief products of the soil were corn and grass, and 
custom prescribed a regular rotation of crops, which no husband- 
man dreamt of departing from. The land was ploughed by rude 
heavy ploughs drawn by teams of oxen, and every year a liaK or a 
third of the arable soil lay fallow. The richest and most thickly 
inhabited part of the country was the south-east, where the open 
downs afforded rich pasture for sheep, and the forests provided 
plentiful store of acorns and beechmast to fatten swine. But the 
whole land was scantily peopled, and England contained less than 
two million inhabitants. The rude system of agriculture with the 
wasteful fallows yielded a scanty return to the farmer's labour. 

73 



74 ENGLAND BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST [449- 

Moreover, conummications were so difficiilt that a bad harvest in 
a district meant famine to its inhabitants, even if there were 
plenty a few shires off. Each farmer grew enough to support his 
own household, and was independent of fairs and markets, except 
for a few luxuries. 

2. The nobles possessed great influence, and held great tracts of 
land scattered over the country, which were cultivated by their serf s 
Thegns, ^^^^ dependants. The most important of the nobles 

eeopls, and were called the king's tJiegns, or servants. The service 
theows. q£ j^-^Q crown was thought in itseK to ennoble ; the king's 

thegns received grants of land from their master, and were bound to 
fight his battles for him. They attended his councils, helped him in 
the government, and often became so powerful that they were a source 
of trouble and danger to him. In later Anglo-Saxon times the 
nobles became increasingly important. In many cases the smaller 
freemen, or ceorls, found it hard to make their living, and had 
a difficulty in resisting' the g-reediness of the g-reat landlords, who 
wished to make them their dependants. Many surrendered their 
estates to a neighbouring noble, and took them back to be held of 
him in return for protection. This was particularly the case in 
Wessex and the south. In !Northumbria and the Danelaw there 
was still a large class of small free landholders up to the days of 
the Norman conquest. But even there the great nobles had the 
preponderating influence. Men who did not possess land were com- 
pelled to choose a lord to be answerable for them in the law courts. 
The lowest class of the community were bond-slaves, called theows. 
These were bought and sold in the markets like cattle. Poor men 
sometimes sold themselves in order to avoid starvation, and others 
became slaves of those to whom they owed money. There was a 
brisk slave trade, especially from Ireland, and slaves were perhaps 
the most important article of merchandise. 

3. There was little trade and towns were few. The English were 
not strenuous enough to make great gains by commerce, and the 
self- sufficing" life of each family made it unnecessary 
to go often to market. The result of this was that 
most of the towns were more important as fortresses than as 
commercial centres. Surrounded by a ditch and earth- works, and 
fenced about with timber stockades, they were more defensible 
than the houses of the nobles scattered over the country, or than 
the ordinary village packed thickly together behind its quickset 
hedge. Stone walls were almost unknown even for towns, and 
stone houses were also very rare. Most of the people dwelling 



-lo66.] ENGLAND BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST 75 

within the towns' earthen ramparts were farmers living" on th.e 
land, who huddled tog-ether for protection from Danes, robbers, 
and turbulent nobles. Some of the greater towns were on Roman 
sites, like London, Chester, York, or Lincoln. Others became 
important as chief residences of kings, such as Tamworth, the royal 
city of the Mercians, Canterbury, the bome of the kings of Kent, 
and Wincbester, tbe favourite abode of the West Saxon royal house. 
Others grew up round famous churches and monasteries, sucb as 
Peterborough or Liclifield. But it was characteristic of the old 
English, dislike of town life that most of tbe bisbops lived not in 
the chief towns, but in country places tbat owed their whole im- 
portance to their being the bisbop's residence. In France and 
Italy every important town had its bishop as a matter of course. 
Some towns united these various elements, as, for example, York, 
a Homan city, a strong fortress, the sometime residence of !N"or- 
thumbrian king-s, and tbe seat of the northern archbishopric. 
London was by far the most important commercial town. It had 
been so in Homan days, and was so again by the time that the 
Englisb became Christians. Desolated by the Danes, Alfred again 
filled it witb inhabitants. Edward tbe Confessor preferred it to 
Wincbester, and the royal palace that grew uj) hard by tbe great 
abbey of Westminster made it in Norman times the seat of 
government as well as a great commercial centre. Wben London 
submitted to William tbe !N^orman, the whole country accepted him 
as its king', 

4. Even the houses of tbe wealthy were made of wood, and so 
roughly put together that hangings of tapestry were necessary to 
keep out draughts. Grlazed windows were almost 
unknown, and when the openings in tbe walls were 
closed with wooden shutters the interiors must have been dark 
and depressing-. The cliief feature of a nobleman's bouse was 
the great hall, where the lord and his dejDendants lived and 
feasted, and where tbe majority of the inmates slept on the ground. 
Tbere were no chimneys. A big fire blazed in the middle 
of the floor, and the smoke found its way out through a hole 
in the roof. Yet there was plenty of good cheer, 
hard drinking, and coarse revelry, all of which men (jrink^'^ 
loved even more than fighting. The nobles amused 
themselves with hunting and hawking ; and when indoors listened 
to songs and stories, watched jugglers and tumblers, guessed 
riddles, and played chess. The chief luxuries were foreign silk, 
linen cloth, quaint jewellery, and jugs and vessels made of silver 



^e ENGLAND BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST [449- 

and glass. These latter were so curiously fashioned that they 
would not stand upright, so that the reveller had to empty his 
cup before he could set it down. The chief sweetmeat was 
honey, for sugar and spices were rare, and costly foreign luxuries. 
The women were engaged in spinning, weaving, and embroidery. 
Most clothing was made of wooUen cloth, which the women spun 
and wove from the fleeces of their own sheep. The people 
drank mead, made from fermented honey, and sweet thick beer, 
brewed from malt without hops. In the south some wine was 
made, and the rich used also wine imported from France. Food 
consisted chiefly of barley bread, oat cakes, and the flesh of oxen 
and swine. At the approach of winter most of the live-stock was 
kiUed, and the people lived on salt flesh until the spring allowed the 
grass to grow, and fattened the haK- starved flocks and herds that 
had escaped the autumn slaughtering. 

5. There were so few large rooms that meetings and councils 
commonly took place in the open air. Even the churches were 

small rude structures of wood. Stone churches were 
Arehitee- ^^^ exception, thoug'h some of them have come down 

to our own days. They were described as being built 
" after the Roman fashion." They were- small in size, roug'hly 
finished, with round arches and narrow, round, or triangular- 
shaped windows. Some of the towers were elaborately ornamented 
with patterns marked out in stone. They were often used as 
fortresses and meeting-places as well as for worship. It was quite 
a revolution in English building when Edward the Confessor's 
Norman craftsmen erected Westminster Abbey on a scale almost 
as larg-e as the present church, though much less lofty. 

6. The laws of the old English were short and simple. Few 
new laws were passed, and kings like Alfred, who were famous as 

legislators, did little more than collect in a convenient 

To TIT'S 

form the traditional customs of the race. The greater 
part of the Anglo-Saxon codes is taken up with the elaborate 
enumeration of the money penalties which could atone for almost 
every offence. Even murder could be bought off by a payment 
in money. The price paid for a man's life was called his icergild. 
It varied according to the rank of the person slain. At one end of 
the scale was the wergild of the king and archbishop, and at the 
other that of the common freemen. The sum tl^us paid went to the 
kinsfolk of the murdered person. Yery often, however, the kins- 
men took the law into their own hands, and executed summary 
vengeance upon the manslayer. 



-io66.] ENGLAND BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST "J 'J 

7. Tlie land -was divided into sliires, liundreds, and town- 
ships. The origin of the sliires differed in various parts of the 

country. Some of them represent the lesser king- „, 

. The stiirss. 

doms which were gradually absorbed in larger ones as 

English unity grew. Kent, Sussex, Essex, Middlesex, and Surrey 
have still the boundaries of the little kingdoms from which they 
took their names. Yorkshire is a somewhat smaller Deira, with 
a new name taken from its chief town. Northumberland is 
what is left of Bernicia, after Lothian had been given to the 
Scots, and other districts put under the government of the 
bishop of Durham. East Anglia is represented by the two 
shires of Norfolk and Suffolk, names which indicate the division 
of the East Angles into a northern and a southern people. 
The "West Saxon shires are different in origin. That kingdom 
became so large that some sort of subdivision of it was found 
necessary. By the ninth century most of the West Saxon sliires 
had come into existence. They are sometimes said to represent the 
lands held by different tribes of the West Saxons. It is more 
likely that they owe their existence to divisions of the kingdom 
between different members of the royal family, who held sub- 
kingdoms under a chief king. Beyond Wessex, Cornwall represents 
the old kingdom of the West Welsh, which was absorbed in Wessex 
by the tenth century. The midland or Mercian shires are later in 
origin, and were artificial in character. Each of them (except 
Rutland) takes its name from the county town, and in nearly 
every case that town is, or was, the real centre of the life of the 
district. They were probably created at the time of the conquest 
of Mercia and the Danelaw by Alfred and his successors. Some 
of the east midland shires may be Danish in origin. 

8. The shire was divided into smaller districts, called Inmdreds, 
excej)t in the Danelaw, where they are generally called Wapentalces. 
They vary very much in size in various parts of the Hundreds 
country ; those in the south being, as a rule, smaller and town- 
and therefore more numerous than those of the north. ^"^P^- 
Each hundred in its turn consisted of a number of toivnsMjas, or 
villages. 

9. Both sliires and hundreds each had a moot, or court, of their 
own. Both shire moot and hundred moot were attended by foiu' 
men and the reeve, or chief officer of every town- 
ship within it. Besides these, the thegns, landholders. 

and other persons of importance had the right to be present. 
Lawsuits were dealt with first by the hundred, and afterwards 



78 ENGLISH LIFE BEFORE NORMAN CONQUEST [449- 

by the sMre. The method o£ trial was very rigid and formal. 
Everything- depended on the suitors sayiag- the right word or 
doiag' the right thiag at the proper moment. If a man were 
accused of a crime he answered it by produciag compurgators — ^that 
is, persons of good character, who, knowing the person and the 
district, took oath that in. their opinion he was guiltless of the 
offence. Another way of clearing an accused person was by 
the ordeal, or appeal to the judgment of G-od. The suspected 
criminal grasped hot iron or was thrown into water. It was 
believed that if he were innocent a miracle would be wrought; 
the iron would not burn or the water drown. The whole body of 
suitors and members formed the judges, so that justice must have 
been of a very rough-and-ready sort. Besides these local popular 
<}ourts, kings and great lords also had courts of their own, where 
ihey exercised jurisdiction over their dependants and servants.- 
As time went on many nobles received special grants of jurisdiction 
over their lands, which had the effect of removing their tenants 
from the sphere of the hundred court altogether. But the 'shire 
court always remained of great importance. It was not only a 
court of justice, it was also the means of governing the country, 
and those attending it took advantage of its periodic meetings to 
transact aU sorts of business with their neighbours. Its activity 
kept vigorous the local life, but also made it more difficult to 
induce the men of various shires to work together for the general 
profit of the nation. 

10. The king was the head of the people, and surrounded by 
every form of respect. His chief officers were the aldermen, called, 

from Cnut's time onward, the earls. An earl or 
ffi s ^ ^ alderman seems to have been set over every shire. 

But it became customary to assign several shires to 
the same alderman, and this habit received a further extension in 
Cnut's great earldoms, which in practice revived the old kingdoms 
under a new name. The earls thus became such dignified persons 
that they coidd not spend their time going round to the various 
shires and holding* shire moots. A new officer, called the shire 
reeve, or sheriff, seems to have been created as the earls withdrew 
from the administration of their shires. By the Norman period the 
working head of the shire was the sheriff and not the earl. But 
the earl continued the natural commander of the fyrd, or military 
levy of the shire. This consisted of aU the landowners, who were 
bound to provide themselves with arms and serve the king in the 
defence of the country. 



-io66.] ENGLISH LIFE BEFORE NORMAN CONQUEST 79 

11. The admmistrative machineiy was very simple. Tlie local 
courts and the great landlords had to see that the law was observed. 
If a landholder broke the law, his land could be seized ppithborh 
as a pledge of his making amends. The lords were and 
responsible for landless men and others who had ^it^^'^^* 
become their subjects. Moreover, the whole nation was divided 
mio fHthborhs, or tUMngs — ^that is, into g-roups of ten men, who 
were mutually made responsible for each other's doings, and com- 
pelled to pay the fines of their erring associates. Yet the land 
was full of disorder ; outlaws and robbers lui-ked in every moor 
and forest, and increasing difiiculty was found in making the 
nobles obey the king. 

12. The central power was vested in the king. He had a small 
revenue, and, until Cnut's house-carles, no standing' force of soldiers 
at his disposal. Yet if he were a strong man he could 
generally enforce his will. If he were weak, every 

great man took the law into his own hands, and the country was 
plunged into confusion. There was no popular council of the 
nation to correspond with the local moots. But a gathering of 
magnates met together at the chief festivals of the Church, and gave 
the king their advice. This body was called the Witenagemot — 
that is to say, the Council of the Wise Men. It in- 
cluded all the earls, archbishops, bishops, the chief Witen- 
abbots, and sometimes Welsh kings and other subject 
princes. Besides these the ^thelings, or near kinsmen of the king, 
sat in it, as also a number of king's thegns. These latter, who 
were more dependent on the king, were g'enerally numerous 
enough to outvote the official leaders of Church and State. The 
Witenagemot assented to the passing of new laws, ratified royal 
grants of public lands, elected the king's, and discharged the general 
functions of a great council of the nation. We have no evidence, 
however, that it acted as a real check on the monarch. If the ruler 
were strong, he could have his own way; if he were weak, the 
different members each took their own course. The Witan were 
useless in moments of trouble to the kingdom. 

13. The Church held a great position, but after the days of 

Dunstan it was afflicted with the same deadness that had gradually 

seized upon the State. The bishops were very great 

J i? 1 x- J. XT £ The Church, 

and powerful personages ; but there were so lew men 

fit for high rank in the Church that the custom grew up of giving 
more than one bishopric to the same individual. The chief ecclesi- 
astics of the eleventh century were politicians rather than teachers 



So ENGLISH LIFE BEFORE NORMAN CONQUEST [449- 

of the people. They advised the king- in the Witenagemot, sat 
with eaii and sheriff in the shire moot, and took a leading share 
in the government of the country. The monasteries became 
increasingly stag'nant. Great movements profoundly influenced 
the Church on the continent, but the English Church was quite 
indifferent to them. Like the English State, it stood apart from 
the rest of the world. Though the pope was treated with great 
respect, and every archbishop went to Rome to receive from his 
hands the gallium, a stole that marked the dignity of .the archi- 
episcopal office, there was no country in Europe where the E-oman 
Church had less real power, or took less part in the daily life of the 
local churches. Thus the Angio- Saxon Church corresponded in its 
slug'gishness, as in its independence, to the Anglo-Saxon State. 

14. Language and literature reflect the same characteristics. 
Though Latin was the tongue of the Church and of most learned 
Language books, the old English language had a greater place 
and litera- in letters than had the vernacular speech of the 
^^^' continent. We have seen how Alfred busied himself 

with translating books from Latin into English. The English 
Chronicle, which the same great king began, was still kept up in 
various monasteries, and stands quite by itself as a contemporary 
history written in the speech of the country. The noble songs 
it contains, as, for example, that of Brunanburh, show that the 
poetic spirit had not yet left the English people. But the great 
age of Anglo-Saxon poetry was over. HomiHes, translations of 
Scripture, lives of saints, collections of medical prescriptions and 
lists of leading plants, now formed the bulk of the literary output. 
Alfred himseK complained that whereas foreigners had of old come 
to Britain to get learning from the English, the English had now 
to get their knowledge abroad, if knowledge they would have at aU. 
The language was rapidly changing. Kot only did many new words 
come in with the Danes, but the English tongue was throwing off 
its old inflections, and becoming more Hke modern English. In 
letters, as ia so many other ways, Anglo-Saxon England had worn 
itself out. The new blood brought in by the Danes did not do very 
much to restore it. It needed the stern discipline of the :N'orman 
conquest to restore the vitality of the sluggish race, and direct 
England into new channels of progress. 

Books Eecommended for the Further Study of Book I 

For Preliistoric Britain, W. Boyd Dawkins' Early Man in Britain and 
B. t. A. Wmdle's Remains of the Prehistoric Age in England. For Celtic 



-io66.] ENGLISH LIFE BEFORE NORMAN CONQUEST 8 1 

Britain, J. Ehys' Celtic Britain, and J. E. Lloyd's History of Wales, vol. i. ; 
for the Celtic Church, H. Zimmer's Celtic Church in Britain and Ireland, 
translated by A. Meyer, E. J. Mewell's History of the Welsh Church, and 
J. Dowden's Celtic Church in Scotland. For Roman Britain, Haverfield's 
Romanisation of Roman BiHtain, and Military Aspects of Roman Wales. 
Mommsen's Roman History, vol. v. ch, v., translated by Dickson. For 
Early English history a brilliant but somewhat imaginative account is 
contained in J. R. Green's Making of England and Conquest of England. 
For institutions, W. Stubbs' Constitutional History of England,, \o\. i. 
chaps. i,-ix., corrected by C. F'etit-Dutaillin, Studies Supplementary to Stubbs' 
Constitutional History, i. i.-v. (translated from the French). For social and 
economic history, Social England, by various writers, vol. i., especially 
the illustrated edition ; and W. Cunningham's Growth of English Indush^y 
and Commerce during the Early and Middle Ages, pp. 1-128. For the whole 
period, the Political History of En gland,, edited by W. Hunt and R. L. Poole, 
vol, i. (to 1066) by T. Hodgkin. For historical geography see maps xv. 
(Roman Britain) and xvi. (England before the Norman Conquest) in the 
Oxford Historical Atlas, and for all periods Gardiner's School Atlas of 
English History. For Scottish history, see Skene's Celtic Scotland, and 
P. Hume Brown's History of Scotland^ vol. i., the latter more recent, but on 
a much smaller scale. 



BOOK II 

THE NORMAN AND ANGEVIN KINGS 

CHAPTER I 
WILLIAM I. THE CONQUEROR (1066-1087) 

Chief Dates: 

1066. Accession of William i. 

1067-1070. English revolts. 

1071. Hereward subdued. 

1075. Revolts of Earls Ralph and Roger. 

1079. Battle of Gerberov, 

1086. Domesday Book. 

1087. Death of William i. 

1. The coronation of William was succeeded by a few montlis of 
peace so profound that it looked as if England liad been completely 
Earlv subdued, and that the king- would have no more trouble 

policy of with his new subjects than Cnilt had had. William 
William I. gave himself out as the lawful successor of Edward 
the Confessor. Those who had foug'ht for the usurper Harold 
were traitors, and had forfeited their lands for their treason. It 
was natural that William should hand over their estates to his 
Norman followers. But Englishmen who had not been in arms 
against him were allowed to continue in their possessions, and nearly 
all the old officers in Church 'and State were kept on. Edwin and 
3iorcar still governed the midlands and north. The king' brought 
in no new laws, upheld the old courts, and promised to rule as 
Edgar and Cnut had governed. 

2. Despite William's fair words and acts, the English soon 
found that he had very different ideas as to how a king should 
The English govern his country from those of any of his pre- 
revolt of decessors. In particular, he was not likely to follow 
^^^^* the example of Edward the Confessor, and be content 

with a nominal superiority over earls like Edwin and Morcar. 
82 



io68.] WILLIAM I. THE CONQUEROR 83 

Bitter experience in Normandy had. tang-lit him to distrust the great 
nobles, and he had also to satisfy the swarm of Norman adven- 
turers who had helped him, and who were by no means content 
with the small reward meted out to them after Hastings. Before 
long nothing but the fierce will of the king kept the English nobles 
from rebelling, or his Norman followers from robbing the conquered 
people of their lands and offices. In 1067, however, William was 
forced to revisit Normandy. He left the government in the hands 
of his brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux, and of William Fitzosbern, 
a great Norman noble. These men beg-an to oppress the English 
terribly, and encourage the greedy Normans to seize their lands 
and build castles upon them. Only the south had really felt the 
weight of the Norman power. The lands north of the Thames had 
submitted, and had not been concLuered. They at once rose in 
revolt against the misdeeds of William's regents. The king came 
back from Normandy and discovered that his conquest of England 
had only been begun at Hastings. For the next five years he was 
busily engaged in putting down rebellions, and subduing England 
piece by piece. It was noi till 1071 that the process was completed. 

3. All through these years the Engiish were constantly in revolt. 
They fought bravely ; but their leaders were incompetent, and 
were always quarrelling" with each other. Moreover, The com- 
different parts of the country did not work together, pletion of 
One district rebelled and was subdued, and then the conquest - 
next region rose in rebellion. It was, therefore, 1067-1071, 
possible for the Normans to put down piecemeal these piece- 
meal rebellions. Had the English shown as much union as their 
enemies, they might well have aveng'ed the death of Harold. As 
it was, whenever the Normans conquered a district, they erected 
in it a castle, whose g*arrison kept down the English in obedience. 
Even if another revolt broke out, the Normans could take refuge 
behind the walls of the castle until the king* was able to come up 
and release them. The English, unaccustomed to fortresses, had 
few means of capturing these new strongholds. Before long the 
whole land was covered with Norman castles. 

4. The extremities of the country, the north and the west, were 
the most difficult to conquer. The men of the south-western shires 
rose in rebellion in 1068, and called in the sons of 7^0 conquest 
Harold, who had taken refug'e in Ireland, to help of the West 
them. But before the end of the year the king cap- ^"^ ^°''^^- 
tared Exeter, and put down the western revolt for good. William 
had harder work in the north ; but even here the divisions of the 



84 WILLIAM L THE CONQUEROR [1068- 

enemy greatly helped his progress. Edwin and Morcar more than 
once headed a revolt. But they were not strong or resolute enough to 
prove successful leaders, and were divided between their anxiety not 
to compromise themselves fatally with "William, and their conviction 
that William's supremacy meant the loss of the great position so 
long enjoyed by the house of Leofric. After a half-hearted attempt 
they made their submission to William, who treated them with 
remarkable leniency. I^or was the north country more fortunate 
when Edgar the ^theling appeared among them, and they chose 
him as their king. Edgar had, however, one powerful backer in 
his brother-in-law, Malcolm Canmore (or Big Head), the most 
powerful king the Scots had yet had; and the ]N'orthumbrians 
expected much from him in their struggles against William. 
The Danes, however, were also called upon to help them, and 
Malcolm was so jealous of the Danes that he gave the rebels Kttle 
help. A Danish fleet appeared in the Humber, and lent its 
powerful aid to the English. The Danes joined with the best of 
the northern rebels, Waltheof, earl of Huntingdon, and son of 
Siward, the sometime earl of Northumbria. But after William 
came up, the Danes withdrew to their ships, and Waltheof made 
his submission. William treated him with marked favour, and 
reinstated him in his earldom. But the king wreaked a terrible 
revenge on the rebel country. He laid waste the whole land 
from the Humber to the Tees. Many years afterwards all York- 
shire still lay desolate and uaitilled. It was an awful example of 
the rutlilessness of William, and effectually stopped future re- 
bellion in the north country. 

5. In 1070 the last English revolt against William broke out 
in the district bordering on the Wash. Driven out of the open 
Hereward country, the rebels took refuge in the Isle of Ely, a 
subdued, real island in those days, and surrounded on every 
side by a wilderness of fen and morass. At the 
head of this gallant band was a Lincolnshire thegn, named 
Hereward, whose wonderful deeds of daring made him the hero 
of the English. Among others who joined him were Edwin 
and Morcar, who had learned too late that their hesitating policy 
was of no avail against the power of William. For long the Ely 
fugitives defied the power of William ; but at last the king made 
his way to their camp of refuge by building a hard causeway over 
his fens, so that his soldiers could attack Hereward's position. In 
1071 Ely was captured. Hereward reconciled himself to William, 
and was kindly treated by him. So faithful was he henceforth that 



-I07I.] WILLIAM I THE CONQUEROR 85 

William gave Mm a liigli command in tlie army, with wMcli two 
years later the king conquered Maine. Edwin was murdered hy his 
men during the siege of Ely, but Morcar submitted, and was also 
pardoned. Gentle to the leaders, William was inexorable to the 
common rebels. But he had taught the English their lesson. 
Henceforth neither he nor his sons had anything to fear from them. 
6. During the years of conquest nearly all the leading English 
lost their lands and offices. Waltheof was the only English earl 
now left, and such Englishmen as still held estates -pj^e estab- 
were, as a rule, poor and insignificant. Their sue- lishment of 
cessors in property and power were William's Norman i^udalism. 
followers, who soon formed a new foreign aristocracy of land- 
holders. They did not, however, hold their estates in the same 
fashion as their English predecessors. After the system already 
prevalent in Normandy, William granted lands to his followers on 
condition of their serving him in his wars. Already before the 
conquest the English kings had looked to their thegns, or personal 
followers, for help in fighting* their battles. But what was pre- 
viously the exception now became the general rule. The result was 
the general establishment in Eng'land of what was called/eztfZaZzswi, 
or the feudal system. Under it William, as king, was lord of the 
whole land, and his followers held their estates of him as his vassals, 
or subjects. A piece of land was called a fief, and the person 
receiving- it took an oath to be faithful to his lord, called the oath 
oi fealty, or fidelity. Those who took this oath also did homage — that 
is to say, they promised to become the mew, or vassals, of their lord. 
Ultimately the whole country was divided into hniglifs fees, each 
knight's fee being sufficient land to support the knight, or heavily 
armed horsemen, on whom, after Hastings, the strength of every 
army depended. Thus there grew up the system 01 military 
tenures, or tenure by hnight service, whereby the landholders paid 
"their rent to the king by equipping and paying for knights to fight 
for him. The most important of the nobles held their lands 
directly of the king, and bound themselves to supply liim with a 
large nujnber of knights. They were called the king's tenants in 
chief, or tenants in capite, and were about fifteen hundred in 
number. Often they were called harons, from a word which 
originally meant man, but which soon became equivalent to land- 
holding nobleman. But each tenant in chief granted out a large 
part of his land to vassals of his own, who were called suh-tenants, 
or mesne (that is, mediate) tenants. These were, in their turn, bound 
to fight for their immediate lord, and it was only with their help 



S6 WILLIAM L THE CONQUEROR [1071- 

that the tenants in cliief could fulfil their feudal oblig-ations to the 
king. Sometimes the sub-tenants, in their turn, granted out their 
lands to minor sub-tenants, so that many links were forged in the 
feudal chain. Though some of the lesser landlords continued to be 
English, the majority of those to whom by this system military 
power was entrusted were Normans. The mass of the English sank 
to the bottom of the social scale. They became the dependants of 
the ITorman barons, and lost their tradition of freedom as they 
grew accustomed to serve foreign masters. 

7. Soon a great division of interests began to show itself between 
William and the Norman barons. William and his nobles were at 
William and ^^® ^ bringing in the feudal system of land tenure, 
the Norman But the barons were not contented with this. They 
barons. wished to extend into England the system which 
prevailed in Normandy, whereby each feudal landlord was like a 
little king over his own estate. William wished to be a strong 
monarch, ruling' with the help of his barons, but never allowing 
them to set up their will against his. The nobles, on the other 
hand, looked with great alarm on the establishment of a royal 
despotism. They were willing to acknowledge the king as their 
superior lord, provided that in practice he delegated all his power 
to the great landlords. They cared nothing for the unity of the 
kingdom, or the prosperity of the people. They thought of nothing 
but their own estates, and they bitterly resented all attempts to 
restrain their liberty of ruling their vassals after their own fashion, 
even when the attempt came from the king himself. 

8. William did aU that he could to prevent the Norman barons 

from becoming too powerful. He put an end to the great earldoms 

which, since the days of Cnut, had threatened to revive the old 

kingdoms. Even the earldoms over one county he looked upon 

with suspicion, and took care that only the most faithful of his 

followers should be advanced to these diarnities. He 
The Palatine 
earldoms. ^^^ anxious to prevent the growth of great local 

powers, and, luckily for him, he found that the chief 

Anglo-Saxon landlords had held widely scattered estates. He took 

care that the estates of the Norman barons should, like those of their 

predecessors, be distributed over different parts of England. A 

baron who held lands in Cornwall, Norfolk, and Yorkshire was 

less dangerous than one whose whole estate was concentrated in one 

of those counties. Few exceptions were made to this general rule j 

and the chief of these were in the border districts, where military 

necessities made it desirable that there should be a strong local 



-I075.J WILLIAM I THE CONQUEROR 87 

earl, able to protect the boundary from the invasion of foreigners 
with the help of his local levies. On this account there grew up 
on the Welsh and Scottish borders powers afterwards known as the 
Falatine Earldoms. In these regions the great feudal landlord was 
allowed to play the part of a petty king. The palatine earl raised 
the taxes, ruled the local army, made laws, set up law courts, and 
gave judgments in them according to his own pleasure. Nothing 
bound him to the king save his oath of fealty and act of homage : 
for most purposes he was an independent prince. Earldoms of 
this sort grew up on the Welsh frontier, at Chester, Shrewsbury, 
and Hereford, though the latter two were of brief duration. 
Moreover, on the Scottish border, the bishop of Durham was 
similarly invested with such great power over his extensive estates 
that his bishopric practically became a palatine earldom like those 
of the west. If such powers had to be established, they were less 
dangerous in the hands of a priest, who could not be the founder 
of a legal family, than in those of a layman, whose children 
succeeded to him by hereditary right. This process of reasoning 
accounts also for the estabKshment of Odo of Bayeux as earl of 
Kent with hardly less authority than that of the border earls. 

9. In one part of his dominions William's power was particularly 
oppressive. Like all his race, he was a mighty huntsman, and he- 
set apart great forests all over England, where 
husbandry had to stand aside in order that he might 

chase deer freely. " He made," says the English chronicler, 
" great forests for the deer, and passed laws for them that whoso- 
ever killed a hart or a hind should be blinded. As he forbade 
killing deer, so also did he forbid slaying boars : and he loved the 
tall deer, as if he had been their father." The most famous of 
William's forests was the district still called the New Forest in 
Hampshire. Henceforth the forests were treated as exempt from 
the ordinary law. In them the king's will was almost unrestraiaed. 
For generations the English had no more real grievance than the 
cruel forest laws of the ^N'ormans. 

10. The Xorman barons watched with great discontent the anti- 
feudal policy of the Conqueror. Before long they formed schemes 
to overthrow him, and strove to make common cause The -baronial 
with the few English nobles that were stiU left. In revolt of 
1075 Roger, earl of Hereford, associated himself with ^^'^• 
Ralph, earl of Norfolk, in a plot against the king, and the two 
invited Waltheof to join them. Their plan was to dethrone WUKam, 
and divide England into three parts, ruled severally by one of 



S8 WILLIAM L THE CONQUEROR [1075- 

themselves, tlie cMef of whom was to bear the title of king-. It was 
practicaUy a proposal to go hack to the state of things under 
Harold. Waltheof was now earl of Northumberland and married 
to the Conqueror's niece Judith. He refused to have anything to 
do with the conspiracy, though he thought himself bound in 
honour not to reveal to the king what the two earls had suggested 
to him. Before long earls Ralph and Roger rose in rebellion, but 
were easily subdued. Ralph fled to the continent, and Roger lost 
his earldom and was imprisoned for life. No later earls of Here- 
ford were allowed to exercise the 'palatine privileges which Roger 
had enjoyed. A sterner fate was meted out to Waltheof, whose 
wife told William of his negotiations with the rebels. Waltheof 
confessed that he knew of their designs, and thereupon William 
beheaded liim as a traitor. Thus perished the last of the Eng- 
lish earls. Henceforth the Norman traitors could not obtain even 
the partial support of men of native birth. Yet for the next 
hundred years there was a continued struggle between the Norman 
feudal party and the Norman king. Whenever the ruler was 
weak or embarrassed, there was sure to be a rising like that of 
Ralph and Roger. But though the barons sometimes won a 
temporary triumph, the final victory was with the king. 

11. Very soon the barons had another chance of attacking the 
monarchy. William's eldest son, Robert, was an open-handed, good- 
Rebellion tempered soldier, eager for personal distinction, but 
of Robert, weak, easHy led, and impolitic. In 1077 Robert rose in 
1079. revf>lt against his father, and found support from 
many of the barons, both in Normandy and in England. The 
Conqueror's strong- hand prevented any fighting in England, but 
in Normandy Robert waged war against his father, with the help 
of the French king. In 1079 William besieg-ed his son in Gerberoy, 
on the eastern frontier of Normandy. In a scufile that ensued 
Robert wounded his father with his own hand ; but WiUiam loved 
his cliildren fondly, and soon forgave him and restored him to 
favour. 

12. The disloyalty of the Normans led William and his suc- 
cessors to rely more and more upon the English. The English 

soon found that the barons were their worst oppressors, 
the EnglSh^ WiUiam, thoug-h terrible when opposed, was anxious 

that those who obeyed him should be justly governed 
and live in peace. No such thoug'hts of policy or prudence checked 
the rapacity and violence of the Norman barons. Before long the 
English began to look up to their foreign king for protection 



-I086.1 WILLIAM I. THE CONQUEROR 89 

against the nobles. Thus William cleverly played off the two 
nations against each other. Without the Normans he could never 
have subdued the English. When they were put down, he used 
the English to keep his overpowerful countrymen in check. In 
the same way he claimed every right of the old English kings, and 
added to them every power which the Norman dukes exercised in 
their own country. This combination of the national position of the 
EngKsh king, and the feudal status of the Norman duke, gave 
William a position of very great authority ; the more so as the 
chief checks on both powers were no longer operative. William was 
the first English king who was strong enough to control the whole 
of the land. Though his power destroyed liberty, it made order 
possible. And the great want of England in those days was a 
strong government, keeping good peace. Such a rule William pro- 
vided for England, but the country had to pay heavily for it. He 
was the first king to raise much money by direct taxation, and his 
subjects groaned under his exactions. " The king and his chief 
men," wrote the English chronicler, " loved overmuch to amass 
gold and silver. The king made over the lands to him who offered 
most and cared not how his sheriffs extorted money from the 
miserable people." Yet the same authority recognized the benefits 
of his rule. " He was a stern and wrathful man, and none durst 
do anything against his pleasure. The good order which he 
established is not to be forgotten. He was a very mse and a 
very g-reat man." 

13. In 1085 William ordered an inquiry to be made as to the 
wealth and resources of England. His object was to find out how 
many taxes he could raise from his subjects without -pj^g Domes- 
altogether ruining them. " He sent," said the day Book, 
chronicler, " his men into every shire, and caused 
them to find out how much land it contained, what lands the 
king* possessed therein, what cattle there were, and how much 
revenue he ought to receive. So narrowly did he cause the 
survey to be made that there was not a single rood of land, nor 
was there an ox or a cow or a pig passed by that was not set 
down in his book." In 1086 information thus collected was put 
together in the famous Domesday Booh. Its exactness gave much 
offence to the tax-hating Eng-lishmen ; but William's inquiries 
have this great advantage to us, that they enable us to draw a 
picture of the England of his day such as we can form of no 
other country at so remote a period. Even after fifteen years 
of peace the desolating work of the Conqueror's early years still 



90 WILLIAM L THE CONQUEROR [1086- 

left its mark. Yery commonly the value of land and property 
was less than in King- Edward's days. In some districts, notably 
in YorksMre, great tracts still remained waste. 

14. Soon after the commissioners had done their work, William 
summoned a great moot, or council, at Salisbury. " There," 
The oath at ^^J^ ^^® chronicler, " there came to him all the land- 
Salisbupy, holders in England, whose soever vassals they were, 

and they all became his men, and swore oaths of 
loyalty to him that they would be faithful to him against all 
other men." In this fashion William maintained his hold over the 
under-tenants, who held their land of the great barons. There 
was a danger lest their immediate lord should usurp such authority 
over them that they would be expected to follow him, even when 
he waged war against the king. The Salisbury oath bound all 
men of substance to put their duty to the king above their duty 
to their immediate lords. 

15. The conquest affected the Church as profoundly as the State. 
Sent to England with the pope's blessing, William did his best to 
Lanfpane carry out the pope's wishes and make the English 
and the Church like the Church on the continent. He de- 

upch. prived Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, of his office, 

and appointed as his successor Lanfranc, abbot of the monastery 
of St. Stephen's at Caen, which William himself had founded. 
Lanfranc was an Italian lawyer from Pavia, who made his way to 
Normandy to push his fortune. Seized with a sudden religious 
impulse, he forsook the world and became a monk at a new 
monastery called Bee. The fame of his learniag and piety soon 
made Bee a famous place, and before long Lanfranc was made its 
prior, the chief officer after the abbot. He became William's 
friend, and was called away by him to Caen, and afterwards to 
Canterbury. William and Lanfranc henceforth worked har- 
moniously together for the reform of the English Church. They 
gradually filled up the bishoprics and abbeys with Normans, so 
that Iq Chui-ch as in State all the high places in England went 
to the foreigners. Up to now many bishops lived in the coimtry, 
far away from such towns as England then possessed. The 
Norman bishops transferred their residences to the leading towns 
of their dioceses, as, for example, the bishops of Lichfield went to 
Chester, the bishops of Dorchester in Oxfordshire removed to 
Lincoln, and the bishops over Northumbria and East Anglia took 
up their abodes ia Durham and Norwich. In their new sees they 
bmlt magnificent cathedrals after the Norman pattern which 



-io87.] WILLIAM I. THE CONQUEROR 9 1 

Edward the Confessor had first introduced into England at West- 
minster, More learned, energetic, and vigorous than their 
English predecessors, the Norman prelates did much to reform the 
English Church. They made the clergy more hard working, better 
educated, and more zealous. 

16. The Normans brought in the new ideas as to how the Church 
should be governed, which had been growing up on the continent, 
but were quite unknown in England. These views, 

first taug'ht by the monks of Cluny in Burgundy, brandine 
were now upheld by the famous HUdebrand, arch- movement 
deacon of Rome, who, soon after William's accession, England 
became pope as G-regory vii. Horrified at the world- 
liness of the clergy, and of the power which lay rulers of evil 
life exercised over the Church, Hildebrand wished to separate 
.the Church as strictly as he could from the State. He waged war 
against simony, or the selling of benefices for money or corrupt 
consideration. He taught that the clergy should, like monks, 
refrain from marriag'e, for if they had families of their own there 
was danger lest they should be too much mixed up in worldly 
affairs, and should aim at advancing their children and handing on 
their benefices to them rather than devote themselves to advancing 
the cause of the Church. He saw everywhere cruel kings and 
princes dominating the Church and oppressing the clergy, and 
thought that the best remedy for this was to claim for the Church as 
complete a freedom as was possible from the secular power. With 
that object he prohibited secular rulers from continuing the old 
custom of investing or conferring on bishops and abbots a ring 
and staff, which were looked upon as the symbols of their ecclesi- 
astical office. In carrying out this object he fell into a fierce 
conflict with the emperor, Henry iv., who refused to sui-render his 
ancient rights. This struggle, called the Investiture Contest, lasted 
nearly fifty years, and filled all Germany and Italy with confusion. 
It was soon clear that Hildebrand, in trying to reform the Church, 
was likely to set up an ecclesiastical despotism which in the long 
run was more dangerous than even the despotism of kings and 
emperors. But the full results of this were not yet seen, and most 
of the more high-minded and enthusiastic reformers were on the 
side of the pope. 

17. WiUiam and Lanfranc were quite in agreement with 
Hildebrand. To keep the Church apart from the world, William 
passed a new law separating the courts of the Church from the 
courts of the nation, and enacting that every bishop should 



92 



WILLIAM I THE CONQUEROR [1072- 



henceforth try his clergy in his own ecclesiastical court, and not 
in the hundred or shire court. Lanfranc held a series of councils, . 
in which he introduced into England the pope's laws 
ttonof^^^^ against simony, and for the first time ordered that 
Church and no clergyman should marry. From all this it resulted 
State. j^^^ ^j^g Church and State in England were separated 

clearly from each other ; the courts and law of the Church were 
strengthened, and the pope's power over England was greatly 
increased. All these changes made the Church stronger, though 
it also "became less national. William, as the ally of the Chm-ch, 
profited by its strength, and his close friendship with Lanfranc 
and the reformers did much to increase the royal power. Gregory 
was so well satisfied with WiUiam that he took no steps to 
prevent him from investing' his hishops in the fashion that was 
not allowed to the emperor. For the moment the friendship of 
William and Lanfranc united the Church with the State. 

18. There was danger, however, in the background. The clergy 
were constantly claiming' more and more authority, and some 

. of them spoke as if kings and princes only existed in 

posed on ec- order to carry out the orders of popes and prelates, 
elesiastical William himself was alive to ,the danger of clerical 
usurpations, and sought to strengthen himself against 
them by keeping up the traditions of English independence. He 
ordered that no pope should be obeyed in England until the king 
had recognized him. He would not allow Church councils to 
meet or pass canons, or Church laws, without his sanction. He 
prohibited the introduction of papal hulls, or letters, into Eng'land 
unless he approved of them. When Grregory vii. requested 
William to do homage to the Roman Church, he refused to obey 
him, on the ground that no previous English king had ever per- 
formed such an act. Thus in the Church as in the State, 
William strove to limit the action of the forces that he himself had 
brought into the country. The pope, like the barons, was useful 
to the king in establishing his hold over England ; but both were 
dangerous if not kept mthin strict bounds. The reign of William's 
sons showed the wisdom of the Conqueror in watching narrowly 
the power of the Church. 

19. Master of England, William strove to revive the English 
William as overlordship over the rest of Britain which Edgar 
overlord of and Cnut had exercised. Malcolm Canmore's support 

ri am. ^£ ^^^^^ ^^le ^theling gave the English king a good 

excuse for attacking Scotland. In 1072 William crossed the 



-loS;.] WILLIAM I. THE CONQUEROR 93 

border, and advanced to Abernethy, on the Tay. Tliere Malcolm, 
despairing of resistance, went to meet bim, and did bomag'e to bim 
as his lord. The Welsh were also brought under William's power. 
Defeated and divided since Harold's days, they were kept in check 
by the border earldoms, and could offer no effective resistance. 
William accordingly pushed Harold's conquests still further west- 
wards. He went on pilgrimage to St. David's, and built a castle at 
Cardiff. Like Edgar, he established relations with some of the 
Danish princes in eastern Ireland, and thought of crossing over 
St. Greorge's Channel and conquering that land. Never had an 
English king exercised wider power. Like Cnut, he was lord of 
all Britain, and also governed great continental possessions. 

20. The union of England and Normandy under one ruler 
made foreign policy more important than ever it had been before. 
William had plenty of feuds with his French neighbours William's 
and many designs to extend his Norman dominions, foreign 
He was glad to get the help of the English to carry out PO"*^^- 
these enterprises, and •within a few years of the completion of the 
conquest we find Englishmen loyally fighting' William's battles in 
France. To the south-west of Normandy was the county of Maine, 
whose capital is the city of Le Mans. It had long been an object 
of Norman ambition to conquer this district. In 1073 William 
succeeded in effecting this purpose. The army which conquered 
Maine was largely composed of Englishmen, among them being the 
gallant Hereward. William was often on unfriendly terms with 
his overlord. King Philip i. of France, who was jealous of his over- 
mighty vassal's power. Philip gladly intrigued with his barons 
against William, and gave help to Robert in the days of his 
rebellion. At last, in 1087, there was open war between the two 
kings. The English king headed a raid from Normandy up the 
Seine valley, and took possession of the town of Mantes. He set 
the town on fire, and rode out on horseback to witness the ruin 
that he was working. His horse stumbled and threw him from the 
saddle. He was now an old man and very stout, so that the heavy 
fall caused him a fatal injury. Borne by his followers to Rouen, 
he died on September 9, and was buried in his own favourite 
foundation of St. Stephen's at Caen. Stern and cruel though he 
had shown himself, he was, after his own lights, a just and religious 
man. With all his faults, he did much good to England. His 
reforms changed the whole course of our history. 



CHAPTER II 
WILLIAM II., RUFUS (1087-1100) 

Chief dates : 

1087. Accession of William ii. 

1088. Revolt of the Norman barons, 

1089. Death of Lanfranc. 

1093. Anselm made ^.rchbishop of Canterbury. 

1095. The First Crusade. 

1097. The exile of Anselm. 

1 100. Death of William ii. 

1. By his wife, Matilda of Flanders, WilliEtm tlie Conqueror left 
three sons, Robert, WiUiam, and Henry. As the firstborn, 
The sons of I^obert was his father's natural successor. But he had 
William the forfeited William's favour by his rebellion, and the old 
Conqueror, jjjjig feared lest, under Robert's weak and sluggish 
rule, the feudal barons should upset all his plans for the continuance 
of a strong monarchy. !N"ormandy vwas a strictly hereditary fief, 
and the Conqueror neither could nor would prevent Robert from 
succeeding to it. But England was the conquest of his own hand, 
and just as he had claimed its throne as the nominee of the 
Confessor, so he professed to have some right of disposing of 
the succession. On his death-bed he had expressed a wish that his 
second son, William, should become the next king of England, and 
sent him to England with a letter to Lanfranc. The archbishop, 
faithful as ever to his master's policy, used all his great influence 
to carry out the dead ruler's wishes. The young prince strove 
to purchase the people's good-will by releasing some of his 
father's captives, among them being IVEorcar, the sometime earl of 
Northumbria, and Odo, bishop of Bayeux, whom he restored to his 
earldom of Kent. AU turned out as the Conqueror had wished. 
No opposition was raised to William's accession, and on September 
26, 1087, Lanfranc crowned him king in Westminster Abbey. 

2. In person the new king was stout and strong, with red hair 
and a ruddy complexion. On this account men called him Bufus, 
or the Red King. In character he was a coarse copy of his father. 
94 



-1095.] WILLIAM IL, RUFUS 95 

He had the strong will, the high courage, the shrewd percep- 
tion of his own interest, and the fierce resolution to rule England 
after his own fashion that distinguished the Con- character 
queror. He was a faithful son, a gallant soldier, of William 
and a bountiful master to his servants. But he had ^"^^s* 
none of his father's higher qualities, such as piety, sense of duty, 
and love of justice. His life was foul, his passions unbridled, his 
cruelty and avarice unchecked by pity or fear. One of the wickedest 
men who have ever filled the throne, he was nevertheless a strong and 
capable king. Under Lanfranc's influence he began to reign well, 
3. It was at once clear that William would be an active king, 
and the barons soon began to regret that they had lost their 
chance of being ruled by a weakling like liis brother, i^^^ baronial 
In 1088 they rose in revolt in favour of Robert, revolt 
Though Robert slugg-ishly stayed in I^ormandy, and °f l^^^* 
gave them no help, their rebellion was a formidable one. Odo of 
Bayeux, regardless of his nephew's recent mercy, put himseK at 
their head, and all over the country the barons plundered the 
king's subjects and laid waste their lands. In his distress William 
turned to the English, He promised them better laws than they 
had ever had before, and declared that he would not tax them 
unjustly or carry out the forest laws oppressively, A great force 
of Englishmen then flocked to the king's banners, and drove 
Bishop Odo to take refuge in his strong castle of Rochester, 
After a long siege Rochester was subdued, and Odo was deprived 
of his earldom and banished from England for good. Thanks to 
English help, William put down the rebellion, and some of the 
greatest barons in England shared Odo's fate. Those who still 
retained their estates soon found that the tyranny of Rufus bore 
more hardly upon them than even the strong rule of his father. 
But they were powerless to resist him to any good purpose. Once 
in 1095 Robert Mowbray, earl of ISTorthumberland, „ ,, „ 
plucked up courage to take up arms against the king. Robert 

William hurried to the north, and shut up his Mowbray, 

1095 
rebellious vassal in his castle at Bamburg'h. As he 

could not reduce the stronghold, William built a castle over against 

it, which he called Malvoisin, or Evil Neighhour, and went back to 

the south, Mowbray soon ventured to leave his castle, whereupon 

the garrison of Malvoisin fell upon him and took him prisoner. 

Mowbray forfeited his immense estates and was imprisoned for 

lr£e. The feudal party, thoroughly cowed, remained quiet for the 

rest of Rufus's reign. 



96 WILLIAM II, RUFUS [1089- 

4. As long as Lanfranc Kved, E-ufus was restrained from his 
evil courses by tis old friend's wise advice. But Lanfranc died in 
1089, and henceforth, the king chose counsellors of a very different 

stamp. His favourite minister was now Ranulf Flam- 
pf^^tf d ^^■'^^ — ^^^ ^^' ^^® T^orch — a sharp-witted and un- 
scrupulous ISTorman clerk, who rose from a low station 
by his readiness to suggest clever ways of filling the king's 
tre^ury. Finally, Ranulf was appointed to the rich bishopric of 
Durham. He was called the king's Justiciar, and in his hands the 
oifice so named became a permanent post. William i. had appointed 
regents to govern during his absences abroad, and had called them 
"justiciars. But henceforth the justiciar acted in the king's 
presence as well as when he was beyond sea. From Flambard's 
time the justiciar was the prime minister and chief helper of the 
Norman sovereigns. 

5. Flambard showed great ingenuity in using* the king's feudal 
rights over his vassals as pretexts for extortion. Thus when a 

tenant in chief died the king as his lord had the right 
extortions ^^ exacting a relief, or money payment, from the heir 

before he handed over to him his father's estate. In 
the same way the king had the right of levying aids, also money 
payments, from his vassals when he had any special occasion. He 
also was in the habit of acting as guardian over tenants who were 
not of full age, and of demanding a sum of money from tenants 
who wished to marry, and had to obtain their lord's consent before 
they ventured to do so. All these feudal dues, as they were called, 
had been levied by the Conqueror in a moderate and reasonable 
spirit. Flambard and William crushed the barons by exacting 
outrageous sums as reliefs or aids. They wasted the estates of 
minors, cut down their woods, and handed over to them lands so 
pillaged and tenants so impoverished that their property was a 
burden rather than a benefit. The penniless and disreputable 
courtiers of the king were enriched by being married to unwilling 
heiresses. The heavy hand of Flambard lay upon every baron in 
England. Though they chafed under the burden, they dared not 
throw it off. Nor were the English much better situated. The 
weight of taxation was far more oppressive than under the Con- 
queror, and Rufus, though protecting the people from the barons, 
was intolerably capricious in all his dealings with them. 

6. Rufus was even more shameless in maltreating the ecclesi- 
astics than in robbing the lay barons. He scoffed at religion, and 
delighted to oppress its ministers. A bishopric or an abbev seemed 



-I093.] WILLIAM II., RUFUS 97 

to him to "be just like a lay fief, except that the defenceless cha- 
racter of the clerg-yman who held it made it easier to rob him with 
impunity. One of the royal rights which William 
most abused was called the regale, by which the king- ^^ church 
had the custody of the lands of all vacant bishoprics. 
The idea was that the king would protect the estate from violence, 
and hand it over in good condition to the new bishop when he was 
appointed. "William resolved to keep rich bishoprics vacant as long 
as possible, so that he might keep the rents of the lands of the see 
for as long a period as possible. Accordingly, when Lanfranc died, 
the king prevented the appointment of a new archbishop for four 
years, during which period he plundered and mismanaged the 
archbishop's estates so as to get all he could out of them. So long 
as William was healthy and weU, he persisted in his evil courses ; 
but in 1093 he was prostrated by a violent fever, and feared that he 
was going to die. He was then smitten with repentance for all the 
evil that he had done, and in particular for his oppressions of the 
Church. He resolved, by way of atonement, to fill up at once the 
archbishopric of Canterbury, and he chose the best possible priest 
available to occupy the great office. 

7. At that time Lanf ranc's old monastery of Bee was ruled over 
by the abbot Anselm of Aosta. The son of a nobleman in the 
Alpine valley of Aosta, Anselm's outward history was Anselm 
curiously similar to that of Lanfranc. Like Lanfranc, archbishop 
he crossed the Alps and sought a career in Normandy, o^ ^^"i'no^ 
where he was impelled by an outburst of religious ' 

zeal to forsake the world to become a monk at Bee. There he won 
by his writings a reputation which far exceeded, the literary 
fame of Lanfranc, and was venerated for a sanctity to which the 
hard and lawyer-like friend of the Conqueror had but few pre- 
tensions. In an age of brutal violence and cunning self-seeking, 
the gentle, compassionate, and kindly nature of Anselm was the 
more beautiful because of its rarity. He was now becoming an old 
man, and heard with alarm that the repentant king was wishing to 
raise him to the see of Canterbury. He was, he said, a weak old 
sheep, who should not be yoked to a fierce young bull like the 
English king. But Anselm, who happened to be in England at 
the time, was forced to appear at the bedside of the sick king, and 
literally compelled to accept the perilous preferment. 

8. Anselm had not wished to be archbishop ; but having re. 
ceived the office, he was resolved to discharge all its duties to the 
utmost of his capacity. Very soon William recovered, and fell 

H 



g8 WILLIAM II., RUFUS [1093- 

33ack on Ms old courses of extortion, profanity, and profligacy. 
Anselm was horrified at the wickedness that went on unrestrained 
Quarrel of ^^ court, and wished to summon a council of bishops 
Anselm and to devise means for reforming the morals of the 
Rufus. king and his friends. At the same time he strove 

to put an end to the scandal caused hy the prolonged vacancies of 
bishoprics and abbeys. Eiufus was moved to extreme anger. He 
refused to allow the reforming council to meet, and bitterly re- 
pented that he had weakly raised Anselm to the primacy. " "What 
are the abbeys to you ? " he cried. " Are they not mine ? " " The 
abbeys are yours," replied Anselm, " to protect, and not to destroy. 
They belong to Grod, and their revenues are intended to maintain 
God's ministers, not to support your wars." Meek and gentle 
though he was, Anselm was strong enough to withstand William 
to his face, and a complete breach between them soon followed. 

9. At this tim.e there were two rival popes in Christendom. 
Urban 11. was generally acknowledged by the Church, but the 
The Council i'^vestiture contest was still raging between Papacy and 
of Reeking- Empire, and the emperor had set up as a rival to 

am, . -Q-j^^jan a partisan of his own named Clement. Anselm 

asked leave of William to go to E-ome to receive the pallium ^ from 
Urban. William answered that he did not recognize either Urban 
or Clement as pope, and refused Anselm permission to leave the 
country. In 1095 a great council met in the royal castle of 
Kockingham in Northamptonshire to discuss the rival claims of 
pope and king on the allegiance of the archbishop. William 
declared that he would deprive Anselm of his archbishopric if he 
persisted in obeying the pope, whom the king had not acknow- 
ledged. The majority of the bishops were on the king's side, and 
advised Anselm to submit. The lay nobles were friendly to Anselm, 
and the king dared not carry out his threat. The council broke up 
without coming to any conclusion, but the resolution of the primate 
had won a moral victory over the time-serving of the bishops and 
the impotent violence of the king. 

10. During the next two years the relations of king and arch- 
bishop became worse and worse. The original cause of dispute 
was ended when Rufus suddenly acknowledged Urban, and, though 
not permitting Anselm to go to Rome for his pallium, allowed him 
to receive it from a papal legate who brought it from Rome. But 
fresh difficulties arose : Anselm would not pay the large sums of 

> For the pallium, see page 80. 



•I097.] WILLIAM II., RUFUS 99 

money which William required him to contribute to the expenses 
of his campaigns. He irritated William by sending" to a Welsh war 
a contingent of soldiers which the king thought too Anselm 
small in numbers, and too ill-ec[uipped for the work, driven into 
When the king appealed to his own court to settle ®^^^®» 1097. 
this dispute, Anselm declared that the matter must be referred to 
"the pope. In 1097, upon this appeal, he withdrew to Home, and 
William at once laid violent hands upon his estates. The arch- 
bishop remained in exile for the rest of the reign. Alone of the 
king's subjects, he had dared to resist his will. 

11. The dispute between Church and State did little to check 
the prosperous course of the king's affairs. Master of England, 
E-ufus threatened the independence of Scotland and _ 
Wales even more signally than his father had done. Cumberland 
In 1092 he conquered Cumberland, which had hitherto and death of 
been an independent state, tracing back its origin to the r^^ore 
old kingdom of the Strathclyde Welsh. Ciunberland 

was made a new English county, and Carlisle, now an English 
city, became in the next reign the seat of a new bishopric. In 
1093 there was war between William and Malcolm Canmore. Mal- 
<X)lm invaded England, but lost his life at Alnwick. His reign 
is of the greatest importance in Scottish history. The rude High- 
land chieftain had been tamed into civilized ways by his saintly 
wife Marg-aret, the sister of Edgar the ^theling. Through 
Margaret's influence English fashions of life were spread through- 
out the Celtic kingdom. Her influence lived on during the reigns 
of her sons, and as Scotland became more English, it was inclined 
to be more friendly with the Eng-lish kings. 

12. Even more notable was the advance of the English power in 
Wales, though here it was brought about after a different fashion. 
The Welsh princes remained as fiercely Celtic as -piie Norman 
before, and William himself did not manage to subdue conquest of 
the stronger of them in any real fashion. But many ^°"^^ Wales. 
Norman adventurers, debarred by Ruf us's strong hand from ruling 
England as they wished, swarmed over the boundary-line, and, 
fighting for their own hands, carved out with their swords new 
lordships for themselves at the expense of the Welsh. Soon all 
eastern and southern Wales was overrun by Norman barons, who 
set up castles to hold the lands they had conquered. Thus arose 
what was afterwards called the lordships marcher, or border lord- 
ships of Wales. These were small feudal states, ruled almost 
independently by great Norman families,, and owing little but bare 



100 WILLIAM II., RUFUS [1095- 

allegiance to the English king, who permitted their estahKshment 
because it was a cheap way of occupying his restless barons and 
keeping the Welsh in check. Prominent among these feudal states 
were the palatine earldom of Pembroke, the lordships of Grlamorgan, 
Brecon, and Montgomery. Only amidst the hills of Snowdon did 
the Welsh succeed in maintaining their independence. 

13. The separation of England and ]!Tormandy hardly lessened 
William's importance in continental affairs. Robert's weakness 

made his g'overnment of N'ormandy a sorry failure. 
Rurus and jj^ ^^^ 's>(d(m. in such dire distress for money that he 

sold the Cotentin and the Avranchin, the western 
districts round the towns of Coutances and Avranches, to Henry, 
the youngest and wisest of the Conc[ueror's sons. When William 
in his turn invaded Normandy, Robert bought o:ff his hostility by 
yielding to him also a large tract of territory in the east. Maine 
revolted from Robert, and once more was ruled by her own line of 
counts. Sometimes William and Robert acted together. They 
grew jealous of Henry's power in the Cotentin, and united for a 
moment to drive him out. Before long, however, the prudent 
Henry found his way back again. 

14. In 1095 Urban 11. urged all Europe' to join in a holy war 

to rescue the sepulchre of Christ and the other holy places in 

The First Palestine from the yoke of the Mohammedans. 

Crusade, Palestine had been ruled by the Mohammedans for 
1095 J 

many centuries, but so long as its masters were the 

Arabs, Christian pilgrims were stiU permitted to visit the spots 
consecrated by Christ's presence. Recently, however, the Turks, 
a fierce race of barbarians from central Asia, had made them- 
selves the greatest power in the Mohammedan world, and had 
taken possession of Syria. Their fanaticism put aU sorts of diffi- 
culties in the way of the pilgrims, and their complaints at last 
moved the pope to take up their cause. He promised the favour 
of the Church and all sorts of spiritual privileges to aU who would 
join in the holy war. Those who agreed to go wore a cross sewn 
upon their garments, and the holy war was called a Crusade. It 
was just the sort of enterprise to appeal to a time when the warrior 
and the monk represented the two types of life that were most 
generally esteemed. All Europe sent its chivalry to fight against 
the infidel at the command of the pope. The First Crusade, 
as it was called, was a wonderful success. The Turks were 
expeUed from the Holy Land, and Godfrey of Boulogne was 
established in 1099 as Christian king in Jerusalem. 



-IIOO.] 



WILLIAM IL, RUFUS 



lOI 



15. Robert of Normandy was anxious to go on crusade, but he 
liad no money to equip himself or his followers for the expedition. 
In 1095 William advanced him a sufficient sum, and w-ii-q^, 
Hobert handed over to him Normandy as a pledge gains Nor- 
that he would repay it. This prudent bargain allowed mandy and 
Robert to win glory in Palestine while William ruled 
Normandy. Among Robert's companions in the holy war was 
Edgar the ^theling. Meanwhile William's stern government 
soon restored order in Normandy. He won back Le Mans, and 
went to war against France. His success enhanced his reputation, 
and, to the alarm of the French king, 
Duke William of Aquitaine, anxious, 
like Robert, to go on crusade, oSered 
to pledge his great duchy to him 
in return for the necessary funds. 
Visions of a power in France ex- 
tending from the Channel to the 
Pyrenees floated before William's 
eyes ; but before he could take any 
steps to realize his dreams he was 
suddenly cut off. On August 2, 1100, 
he went to hunt in the New Forest. 
There an arrow drawn by an unknown 
hand pierced him to the heart. The 
courtiers scattered, and next day 

some foresters bore the corpse to Winchester on a cart, and it was 
laid, without service or ceremony, in a tomb in the minster. A 
stone, called Rufus's stone, marks the place where the tyrant was 
traditionally said to have met his death. William, says the English 
chronicler, *' was loathsome to all his people and abominable to 
God, as his end shewed, for he departed in the midst of his 
unrighteousness without repentance or atonement." 




Walker & Cockerellac 



THE NEW FOREST 



CHAPTER III 



Accession 
and early 
measures of 
Henpy I., 
1100. 



HENRY I. (1100-1135) 

Chief dates : 

1 100. Accessioa of Henry r. 

1 102. Fall of Robert of Belleme. 

1106. Battle of Tincbebray. 

1 107. Eeconciliation of Henry and Anselm. 
1 120. Loss of tbe White Ship. 

II35. Death of Henry i. 

1. Henry, tlie dead king's younger brother, was a memlber ol the 
hunting party in which E-nfus met his fate. Without a moment's 
delay, he hurried to Winchester, secured the royal 
treasure, and procured his election as king Iby the 
handful of magnates who happened to be there. 
Thence he hastened with all speed to London, where, 
on August 5, the fourth day after the New Forest 
tragedy, he was crowned as king. 

2. Immediately after his coronation, Henry issued a Charter of 
Liberties, wherein he sought to win the favour of every class by 
Henry's promising to reign after a better fashion than his 

Charter of brother. To the Church, suffering from Hufus's 
Liberties. constant encroachments on her liberties, he promised 
freedom of election to all bishoprics and abbeys, and declared 
that henceforth he would not sell or favour the revenues of vacant 
sees. To the barons he announced that he would not insist on 
the unreasonable reliefs, excessive marriage fines, oppressive ward- 
ships, and other exactions of his brother's days. To the nation at 
large he offered the abrogation of " all the evil customs whereby 
the realm has unjustly been oppressed," and the renewed enjoy- 
ment of the laws of Edward the Confessor. He stipulated that he 
would take care that his barons gave the same concessions to 
their tenants as he himself had given to his tenants in chief. Only 
in respect to the forests woidd Henry yield nothing. Besides 
issuing this charter, Henry imprisoned Ranulf Flambard in the 
Tower of London, wrote at once to Anselm to urge him to return 



II02.] HENRY I. 103 

to Eng-land, and married Editli, daughter of Malcolm Canmore and 
St. Margaret, and sister tt> Edgar, the reigning king of Scots. 
In all these acts Henry posed as the friend of the English and the 
foe of the feudal baronage. His marriage with a descendant of 
the West Saxon king's was particularly popular, though to please 
the IN'ormans he changed the lady's name to Matilda, or Maud, the 
name of his motb.er. She soon became loved as the good Queen 
Maud. But the Normans sneered at Henry's affectation of Eng- 
lish ways, and derided him and his wife by nicknaming them 
Godric and Godiva. 

3. Within a few weeks of his brother's accession, Robert of 

Normandy came back from the Holy Land, having won great glory 

by his exploits as. a crusader. He resumed the _ .. „ 

government of Normandy, which again fell into the Robert's 

disorder which it needed a strong hand Kke that of revolt, 

1101. 
Henry to check. E-anuK Flambard escaped from the 

Tower, and told Robert that the Norman barons were eager to put 

him on the English throne in place of Henry. Accordingly, in 

1101, Robert collected an army and landed at Portsmouth in quest 

of his brother's crown. But the English rallied around their king, 

and Anselm, now back in England, marshalled all the forces of 

the Church on the same side. Robert saw that the good will of the 

barons availed him nothing against such odds. He was the last 

man in the world to persevere in a hopeless enterprise. He gladly 

accepted Henry's proposal to hold a personal interview. When 

they met the brothers made friends. Robert agreed to yield up his 

claim on England on consideration of Henry giving him a pension, 

and surrendering to him his lands in the Cotentin. 

4. Abandoned by Robert, the Norman barons in England were 
now exposed to the wrath of King Henry. The fiercest, strongest, 
cruellest of them was Robert of Belleme, who added -,. ^^y. - 
to vast dominions in Normandy the lordshij^s of Robert of 
Arundel and Chichester in Sussez, and the palatine ^fPo "^®' 
earldom of Shrewsbury on the Welsh border. A 

mighty warrior, Robert had, been one of the foremost of the 
Norman conquerors of Wales, and nearly all Mid Wales and much 
of South Wales was ruled by him and his brothers. In 1102 
Henry picked a quarrel with him, and Robert had to defend him- 
self. But his tyranny had made him odious to all ; the Welsh and 
English refused to fight for him, and the weak Duke Robert was 
easily persuaded by Henry to attack his possessions beyond sea. 
The king made himself master of Arundel and other castles of his 



104 HENRY I. [II02- 

enemy. Robert of Belleme strove to defend Mmself in Ms Shrop- 
shire estates. But Henry "besieged tlie mighty new castle which 
Robert had erected at Bridgnorth, on the Severn, and the townsmen 
compelled the garrison to surrender. Driven to a last refuge at 
Shrewsbury, the lord of Belleme was forced to make his submission. 
He was allowed to leave England for Normandy, but all his 
English lands were forfeited to the crown. Henry put an end 
to the palatine earldom of Shrewsbury, as the Conqueror had put 
an end to the palatine earldom of Hereford. The English were 
overjoyed at the fall of the tyrant. " Rejoice, King Henry," ran 
a popidar song that they sung, " and give thanks to the Lord Grod, 
for thou hast begun to reign freely now that thou hast conquered 
Robert of Belleme, and hast driven him from the boundaries 
of thy kingdom." Henceforth the feudal nobles were cowed, and 
Henry, having had good reason to distrust them, now g*ave his 
confidence to knights and clerks of lower birth, but of greater 
fidelity. Some of his ministers were even men of English origin. 

5. Henry was soon able to turn the tables on his brother. 
Robert found iN'ormandy was gradually slipping away from him. 
Battle of Robert of Belleme, now limited to his Norman estates, 
Tinehebpay, deprived him of many great tracts of territory. In 

two successive expeditions Henry conquered much of 
Normandy for himseK. At last, in 1106, Henry made a final in- 
vasion of such of his brother's inheritance as stiU remained faithful 
to him. The decisive battle was fought at Tinchebray, where Robert 
lost both his dominions and his liberty. For the rest of his life he 
was kept in kindly custody in his brother's English castles, and 
died at Cardiff nearly thirty years later. His comrade on the 
crusade, Edgar the ^theling, and Robert of Belleme, were also 
taken prisoners at Tinchebray. Henry released them both from 
custody ; but while Edgar lived for the rest of his life in obscurity 
in England, Belleme plunged into fresh revolts that involved him 
in lifelong captivity. Henceforth Henry ruled Normandy as well 
as England, and the duchy, like the kingdom, was reduced to 
good order. 

6. Anselm had loyally helped Henry against the barons, yet 
from the moment of his return a grave question of principle in- 
The Investi- ^^^^^^ ^ long dispute between the king and the arch • 
tupe Contest bishop. During his exile, Anselm had taken an 
1103-f m^' active part in the famous Investiture Contest which 

was still raging between the pope and the emperor. 
He had attended a council in which prelates had been forbidden 



-no;.] HENRY I. 105 

to receive investittire from laymen, or even to perform homage to 
them. Hitherto English hishops, including Anselm himself, had 
received investiture from the king and done homage to him without 
a scruple. Now Anselm refused to renew his homage to the new 
king, and declared that he could not countenance any bishops 
following the ancient custom. The dispute was carried on in a 
good-tempered way, and, though Henry and Anselm were quite 
firm on the matter of principle, neither party lost his respect for 
the other. At last, in 1103, Anselm withdrew from Engiand to 
lay his difficulties before Pope Paschal 11., at E/ome. The arch- 
bishop remained in exile until 1107. Then a satisfactory com- 
promise was arranged, by which he was allowed to return. Henry 
yielded one of the points at issue, but Anselm surrendered on the 
other. The king utterly renounced lay investitures, while the 
archbishop withdrew his objection to clerks performing homag*e to 
the king. Henry's change of front was intelligible, since lay 
investitures were hard to defend upon the principles which all men 
then accepted, for the ring and the staff were admittedly symbols 
of spiritual dignity, and no lay prince had any authority to confer 
spiritual jurisdiction. But Henry regarded investiture as the 
means by which he asserted his authority as king over the prelates 
of his realm. Anselm, by giving* up his point about homage, 
enabled the king to maintain his hold over the higher clergy in a 
way less offensive to their scruples. Henceforth, in return for the 
abandonment of investitures, it was arranged that no bishop was to 
be consecrated or abbot enthroned until he had rendered homage to 
the king for his temporal possessions. Seemingly, the compromise 
was in favour of the Chui-ch, for Henry had given up lay investi- 
tures. But Henry might well maintain that he had surrendered 
the shadow and retained the substance. How far the compromise 
would work depended upon the good sense and forbearance of future 
kings and prelates. But it gave peace for the time, and was so far 
looked upon as satisfactory that, more than fifteen years later, the 
original conflict between pope and emperor was ended upon the 
lines of the agreement of Henry and Anselm by the Concordat of 
Wo7-ms. But the dispute, which in England was amicably settled 
after five years of negotiations, had plim^ged all Germany and Italy 
into confusion for nearly fifty years. 

7. Master of Church and State alike, absolute lord of England 
and Normandy, Henry's power exceeded that of his brother 
and father. Scotland, ruled by the queen's brothers and nephew, 
was friendly and submissive, and so close were the relations of 



I06 HENRY I [1107- 

tlie two courts that pusliiiig !N'orman adventurers began to in- 
sinuate themselves into tlie good will of the Scottish kings, and to 
receive so many lands and favours from them that 
of NormSi ^'^ Scottish nobility became ultimately almost as 
influence l^orman as the baronag-e of England. After 1124 

land ^^°* *^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^*^ ^^^ David, Matilda's brother, who 

had passed his youth at his sister's court, and as the 
husband of Waltheof 's heiress, received Waltheof 's old earldom of 
Huntingdon. David was even more thoroughly normanized than 
his father, Malcolm, had been anglicized. He had no scruple in 
frequently attending King Henry's court, or in performing homage 
to him, ISForman ideals of warfare, law, government, and social life 
spread from his example over all northern Britain. In this in- 
direct way a sort of IN'orman conquest of Scotland was gradually 
brought about ; but it was due, not to violence, but to the -peaceful 
permeation of Norman influence. 

8. During the same years the more forcible ^Norman conquest 
of "Wales which began under E,uf us was completed, save that the 

"Welsh princes of Gwynedd, or North Wales — ^they no 
of the longer were called kings — ^held their own amidst the 

Norman hills of Snowdon, where Henry was powerless to dis- 

South Wales ^^^o ® them. In the conquests of the marchers, Henry 

had little interest, for after the fall of Robert of 
BeUeme none of them were strong enough to threaten his power. 
Yet it was with his good will that Flemings were settled in the 
earldom of Pembroke, where their successors became so numerous 
that they drove out the Welsh speech from southern Pembroke- 
shire, and, adopting the English tongtie, made that district the 
'■Little England beyond Wales," which it still remains. More- 
over, a prudent marriage secured to Henry's own family some of the 
chief spoils of conquest. The king married his favourite illegitimate 
son, whose name was Robert, to the daughter of Robert Eitzhamon^ 
Robert of ^^^^ ^^ Gloucester and conqueror of Grlamorgan. 
Gloueestep Robert inherited his father-in-law's possessions which 
G?amopgan ^^^® erected by Henry into the earldom of G-loucester. 

This earldom of G-loucester, always including the great 
marcher lordship of Glamorgan, was henceforth one of the greatest 
of English dignities. Robert himseH was a famous warrior and 
man of ability. He loved literature, and particularly history, and 
showed such sympathy for the legends of his Welsh subjects, that 
it was at his direction that a Welsh clerk, named Geoffrey of 
Monmouth, wrote his History of Britain. This book made famous 



-1 124.1 HENRY I. 107 

all over Europe tlie picturesque romance wliicli Geoffrey palmed 
off as true history. 

9. After the conquest of Normandy, Henry had constant 
trouhle with. France, now ruled by Louis vi., a mucli more capable 
and powerful king than bis predecessor, Pliilip i. 

Duke Robert's son William soug-bt to drive his uncle lq "jsVl ^" 
out of !N'ormandy, and was supported by Louis, who 
was jealous of Henry's power. There was a good deal of fighting, 
in which Henry was generally successful. At last the chief source 
of danger was removed by the death of William. 

10. In England Henry ruled as an absolute king', after tbe 
fashion of his father. He chose as his justiciar, or prime minister, 
a Norman priest named Roger, who became bishop ^ 

of Salisbury. Roger was as devoted to the king's in- Salisbury 
terests as Flambard had been, but be was no mere and the 
extortioner, but an orderly-minded, careful, and ^.^^ system, 
prudent statesm.an with a genius for administration 
and organization. He set up a body of well-trained clerks and 
laTtyers, wkose help and advice enabled the king to govern 
his dominions better than they bad ever been ruled before. Two 
great courts arose, each with its staff of trained officials, which 
divided between tbem the chief business of the crown. One of tbese, 
the Guria Regis, or King's Court, was mainly a judicial body. It 
sat in judgment on cases wbere the tenants in cbief were concerned, 
and on other cases which were transferred to it from the courts of 
the barons, or from the shire moots. It sent its judges, called 
justices, all over the country, to hold periodical circuits and try 
locally cases that it was not convenient to bring before the king's 
j)resence. It soon became a privilege to have a cause tried by the 
king's judges rather than in the local courts, and henceforth the 
Curia Regis proved a formidable rival to the ancient Anglo-Saxon 
moots as well as the private courts of the nobles. Side by side 
with this body was the Exchequer, served by officials called barons 
of the Exchequer. This assembly collected and controlled the vast 
revenue which Henry exacted, and in return for which the people 
got peace and sound rule. Despite the heavy price they paid for it, 
the people gained by the process. The land became prosperous, 
and such good justice was done between man and man that the 
English called Henry the " Lion of Righteousness." 

11. Misfortunes clouded Henry's later days. His queen, 
Matilda, died, leaving him a son named William and a daughter 
named Matilda. The latter was married when a young girl to 



I08 HENRY I. [II20- 

tlie Emperor Henry v., the same prince who concluded with the 
pope the Concordat of Worms. William was drowned in 1120, 
The loss of ^^^^ returning- from Normandy to England. The 
the White king's son sailed in a vessel called the White SMjp. He 
Ship, 1120. gg^^g ^j^g sailors so much wine that they hecame care- 
less, and kept a had watch. Then the ship struck on a reef of rocks, 
and soon hegan to sink. A boat was g'ot out, and William and others 
embarked in it and rowed away from the wreck. But then he 
found that one of his sisters had been left behind, and returned to 
save her. When the boat came alongside, a rush of the panic- 
stricken crew swamped it and drowned the heir to the throne. 
The blow was a cruel one to Henry, and it is said that he never 
smiled again. 

12. Henry married a second wife named Adelaide of Louvain, 
but she brought him no children. In 1125 the Emperor Henry v. 

died, and his childless widow, Matilda, came back to 
^°dA^^^^ England. Henry had resolved to make his daughter 

his heir. It was an unheard-of thing in those days 
for a woman to rule a race of warriors like the ^N^ormans, and 
Henry's barons were disgusted at the proposal. But they dared 
not withstand the king's will, and bit by bit they were cajoled or 
dragooned into taking oaths to recognize Matilda as Henry's 
successor. She found another husband in Geoffrey, count of 
Anjou, called Geoffrey Plantagenet, because he wore a sprig of 
bloom, or planta genista, in his helmet as his cognizance. The 
county of Anjou was but a small district situated on the lower 
Loire, with Angers and Tours as its chief towns, and divided from 
!N"ormandy by the county of Maine. Yet the race of counts that 
ruled this little territory was so fierce, enterprising, and able that 
Anjou was a much more important state than most lands of its 
size. Aajou and IsTormandy had long been rivals, and the Nor- 
mans hated its people, who were called the Angevins, while the 
Angevins grudged the Normans the possession of Maine, which 
they thoug'ht ought to be theirs. Henry married Matilda to 
Geoffrey, hoping that the match would end the long feud between 
the two lands, and would ultimately unite the two countries. 
He was delighted when the young couple had children, and fore- 
saw the time, when his grandson Henry would be lord of England, 
Normandy, and Anjou. 

13. Henry died in 1135, his end being hastened by an over- 
hearty meal of lampreys, which he ate contrary to the orders of 
his physician. He was buried in Reading Abbey, a monastery of 



-II25.] 



HENRY I. 



109 



Ms own foundation. He was a g-ood king, tkougL personally he 
was as hard and selfish as ever E-nfus had been. But he was wise 



ENGLAND & WALES 
during- the Norman Period 

Berwick 

Durham English Miles 

h o 20 40 60 80 

Bamburgh 




Emery Walker sc. 

enough to see that his interests required that his dominions should 
enjoy peace and prosperity, if only because he could raise heavier 



no HENRY I. [1 135. 

taxes from prosperous tliaii from, impoverislied subjects. Unlike 
Rufus, lie kept Lis fierce passions in such, check that h.e never did 
Death and ci'iiel deeds save with, a politic object. His subjects 
ehapaeter of respected him even thought they feared him. The 
Henry I. English cbronicler thus writes about him : " He was 

a good man, and there was great awe of him. l^o man durst misdo 
another in his time. He made good peace for man and beast. 
Whosoever bore his burden of gold or silver, no man durst say 
ought to him but good." Under him the full effect of the Con- 
queror's policy was worked out, and Eng'land became a peaceable, 
•orderly state, ruled by a strong but wise despot. 



CHAPTER IV 
STEPHEN OF BLOIS (1135-1154) 

Chief dates: 

1135. Accession of Stephen. 
1 138. Battle of the Standard. 
1 141. Battle of Lincoln. 

1153. Treaty of Wallingford. 

1154. Death of Stephen. 

1. Amoxg the kinsfolk to whom Henry i. had given lands and 
power was his nephew, Stephen of Blois, a younger son of the 
powerful count of Blois, who ruled over the Loire Aeeession of 
country between Anjou and the domains directly Stephen of 
governed by the French king. Stephen's mother was ^^o^s, 1 135. 
Adela, a daughter of William the Conqueror. Henry i. had shown 
marked favour to his sister's sons. He had procured Stephen's 
marriage to Matilda, heiress of the rich county of Boulogne, and 
had obtained the important bishopric of "Winchester for his younger 
brother Henry. During his lifetime Stephen had been unswervingly 
faithful to his uncle, and had joined with the other barons in taking 
oaths to acknowledge his cousin, the Empress Matilda, as Henry's 
successor. But he knew how unpopular among the barons was the 
prospect of being ruled by a woman and an Angevin, and on 
Henry r.'s death made a bold and successful attempt upon his crown. 
He hurried to England, and was welcomed by most of the barons. 
The wealthy citizens of London showed him marked good will, and 
his brother. Bishop Henry of Winchester, used his powerful interest 
in his favour. Even the justiciar, Roger of Salisbury, forgot his 
pledges to his old master and declared for Stephen, and Ms action 
brought all the justices and of&cials of the old king to take the same 
side. Accordingly Stephen was chosen king, and crowned by the 
archbishop of Canterbury, William of Corbeil. Like Henry i., he 
issued a charter, and tried to win to his side all sorts of supporters. 
His first charter was a hasty affair, and couched in vague lan- 
guage. He soon supplemented it by a fuller one, in which he set 

III 



112 STEPHEN OF BLOIS [ii35- j 

forth, in detail the many liberties which, he was willing to give to 
the Church.. He promised to root out aU injustice and extortion, 
Stephen's ^^^ pledged Mmself to uphold the good old laws and 
Charters of customs of the realm. Though, keeping for Ms use 
Liberties. j^^ forests as they were under the two Williams, he 1 
offered to relinquish the new ones created by Henry i. 

2. At first Stephen seemed to have won complete recognition 
as king. The barons of l!f ormandy, hating the rule of the Angevin 
and his wife, recognized him as their duke. It was to no purpose 
that some of the English baronage, seeing that he was carrying 
on the same policy as that of Henry i., rose in revolt against him. 
He was eq^ually successful in dealing with David, King of Scots, 
who in 1138 invaded the northern counties as the champion of 
Matilda. Thurstan, the old archbishop of York, stung to indignation 
at the merciless raiding of the Scots, summoned the levies of the 
north to repel them. The English met the Scots at Northallerton. 
Battle of the -^^ ^^^ middle of their ranks was a cart, on which were 
Standard, placed the standard of the king and the banners of 
^ ^^^* the three most famous Yorkshire saints. The English 
fought on foot after the old fashion, but they broke the charge 
of King David's knights, and drove the Scots in disorder from the 
field. The fight was called tlie 'Battle of the Standard. 

3. Stephen was a man of very different mould from Henry i. 
Like Robert of IsTormandy, he was a gallant soldier and a kind, 
Stenhen's open-hearted, chivalrous gentleman. Yet a worse man 
quarrel with of greater firmness and policy would have proved a 
Roger of better king. If Stephen's earlier years remained 

peaceful, the merit was due not to the sovereign^, but to 
Roger of Salisbury and the tried ministers of Henry i. Unluckily, 
Stephen grew to mistrust the justiciar, and became jealous of the 
gT-eat power which he and his kinsfolk were wielding. Besides 
Roger's own high offices in Church and State, his son was chan- 
cellor and two of his nephews were bishops of Ely and Lincoln. 
Eearing lest so mighty a family should encroach still further on the 
royal dignity, Stephen in 1138 called upon Roger and his nephews 
to surrender their castles. The result was a complete breach 
between the king and the powerful official class. Roger was 
driven from office, and no competent successor to him was found. 
Gradually the administrative system set up so laboriously under 
Henry began to grow weaker, and henceforth nothing prospered i 
with Stephen. ' * 

4. Robert, earl of Gloucester, was a partisan of Matilda, but he 



-1 138.] STEPHEN OF B LOIS II3 

had been compelled to acknowledge Stephen after his father's 
death. Within a few weeks of Rog-er's disgrace he Beginnings 
landed in England, accompanied by the empress, who of civil 
now demanded Stephen's throne. Civil war at once ^*^' 
broke out, and went on with hardly a break for the rest of 
Stephen's reig'n. 

5. Stephen strove to withstand Matilda with the help of Flemish 
mercenaries, hired with Henry i.'s gold. He never threw himself 
upon the people as Henry i. had done, and never tj^q rivalry 
obtained much support from them. Matilda was of Stephen 
almost as badly off. Her only competent adviser was ^ ^' 
Robert of Gloucester, for the barons who professed to uphold her 
cause fought in reaKty for their own hands. Whichever side they 
championed, the barons had no wish for either Stephen or Matilda 
to win outright, but preferred that the civil war should go on as 
long as possible, so that they should make their profit from the weak- 
ness of both rivals. The result was that neither party was strong 
enough to defeat the other, and neither was able to control its 
followers or govern the territory which it held. The barons took 
advantage of the dispute to win for themselves the independent 
position which the first three Norman kings had denied them. 
England was plung-ed into indescribable anarchy and confusion, 
and the wretched peasantry suffered unspeakable misery. 

6. The English chronicler, who finally laid down his pen at the 
end of this reign, gives us a moving picture of the desolation of 
the country. " Every nobleman built a castle and 

held it against the king ; and they filled the land with o/l^gfand. 
castles. When the castles were made, they filled them 
with devils and evil men. Then they took all who had any 
property and put them in prison and tortured them to get their 
gold and silver. They taxed the villages, and when the wi-etched 
countrymen had no more to give them they burnt their villages. 
Then was corn dear, and meat and cheese, for there was none 
in the land. Men starved for hunger, and some that were once 
rich men went about begging their bread. They robbed churches 
and churchmen, and though the bishops and clergy were ever 
cursing them, they cared nothing for their curses. The land was 
aU undone with their deeds, and men said that Clirist and his 
saints slept." Another writer says that " there were as many 
kings, or rather tyrants, as there were lords of estates." 

7. A few greedy nobles profited by the necessities of the rival 
claimants to make their own profit out of both. Conspicuous 

I 



114 



STEPHEN OF BLOIS [1141- 



among these was G-eoffrey of Mandeville, a cimning, strong, and 
cruel seK-seeker, wlio, by joining first one side and tlien tlie other, 

obtained from botK grants of enormous estates and 
Geoffrey of ^^ recognition as earl of Essex. At last lie overreached 

himself, and provoked Stephen to make a mighty 
effort to crush him. Geoffrey fled to the fens, the region once 
famed for the daring deeds of Hereward. He held his own there 
until he was slain in a chance skirmish. His power perished with 
him, hut there were plenty of others to take his place, though 
none could play his daring game so cleverly or so successfully. 

8. The course of the war between Stephen and Matilda had 
little effect on the country at large. Stephen's strongest partisans 
were the Londoners and the rich and populous shires of the south- 
east and south. Matilda's chief strongholds were Bristol and 
Grloucester, the main centres of the power of her brother, Earl 
Robert. The greater barons were largely on her side, among them 
The Battle losing Robert's son-in-law, Randolph, earl of Chester, 
of Lincoln, In 1141 Robert and Randolph strove to relieve 
^^'*^* Lincoln, which Stephen was besieging. In a battle 

fought outside the town Stephen's army was overwhelmed and he 
himself taken prisoner. Many of the king's partisans fell away 
from him now that he was helpless. His own brother, Henry 
of Winchester, deserted him and declared to a council of barons, 
g'athered in his cathedral city, that by the defeat of lancoln 
God's judgment had been clearly shown to be ag-ainst Stephen's 
claim to the throne. The barons then chose Matilda as their 

queen, and she went to London to be crowned. But 
fatlure^^ her cold and haughty manner disgusted her best 

friends, and the Londoners, who always wished well 
to Stephen, rose in revolt and drove her from their city, . A strong 
reaction in favour of Stephen broke out. Henry of Winchester 
again changed sides, and in a battle fought at Winchester, Robert 
of Gloucester was taken prisoner in his turn. Matilda now had to 
lead her own side as best she could, while Stephen's cause was ably 
upheld by his heroic wife Matilda of Boulogne. Before long, how- 
ever, the two Matildas agreed to exchange Stephen and Robert 
for each other, and so the war went on as before. But the 
empress had lost her best chance, and in 1148 the death of her 
wise and strenuous brother ruined her last hopes. In despair 
she quitted England for Normandy, and Stephen henceforth reigned 
nominally as sole king. But the land remained in horrible con- 
fusion, and the broken- spirited monarch was far too weak to restore 



♦I 154-] STEPHEy OF BLOIS II5 

order. Only in tlie northern counties, wliere David, king of Scots, 
was in possession, was there any approach to good government. 
The Welsh profited hy England's anarchy to throw off the yoke of 
the marcher lords. 

9. In 1153 Matilda's eldest son, Henry, landed in England to 
claim his mother's heritage. Though only twenty years old, he 
had made himself duke of Normandy. On his father's -phe Treaty 
death he had succeeded to Anjou, and a prudent ofWalling- 
marriage with Eleanor, heiress of Poitou and Aqui- ^o"^^' 1153. 
taine, the divorced wife of Louis vii, of France, had secured him 
the overlordship of all France from the Loire to the Pyrenees. 
Carefully trained in war and statecraft by his uncles E-ohert and 
David, he proved himself a much more formidable enemy to 
Stephen than ever his mother had been. The king had no heart 
to struggle against his young* rival, and the deaths of his high- 
souled queen and of his eldest son Eustace made him anxious to 
end his days in peace. Accordingly, he yielded to the advice of 
Ms wisest counsellors, and made terms with Henry by the treaty 
of Wallingford. By this it was arrang-ed that Stephen was to go 
on reigning for the rest of his life, but that Henry was to succeed 
him to all his dominions. Henry remained in England for a time, 
and did his best to help his rival to pacify the kingdom. 

10. Soon after Henry's return to Normandy, Stephen died. 
His reig'n is only important because it showed what the rule of the 
barons really meant. The cruelties of the Conqueror peath of 
and Ills sons pale into nothingness as compared with Stephen, 
the horrors wrought in the name of this well-meaning * 
king. Stephen's failure showed how vital to England's prosperity 
was that strong and ruthless despotism which the Norman kings 
had set up. The power of the crown was proved to be necessary, 
since it was the only way of saving England from anarchy. 



CHAPTER V 
HENRY II. OF ANJOU (1154-1189) 



Chief dates 


: 


IIS4- 


Accession of Henry ii. 


1159. 


War of Toulouse. 


1 164. 


Constitutions of Clarendon. 


1 166. 


Assize of Clarendon. 


1 170. 


Murder of St. Thomas. 


1 171. 


Norman conquest of Ireland 


1 174. 


Feudal revolt suppressed. 


1181. 


Assize of Arms. 


1 184. 


Assize of the Forest. 


1 189. 


Death of Henry ii. 



1. Ox Stephen's death Henry of Anjon hecame Henry 11. according 
to tlie treaty of Wallingf ord. Under him the houses of Normandy 

and Anjou, hitherto rivals and enemies, became united. 
an?chapac- Moreover, through his grandmother, Matilda, queen 
ter of of Henry i., Henry was descended from the old English 

1 ^54^ *' -^^^ ^^ kings. He was one of the ablest of all onr 

monarchs, and no ruler has left a deeper impress on 
our history. He was a strong, restless man, who worked so hard 
that he would never sit down except at meals and at council 
meetings. He had little respect for tradition, and was fond of 
making experiments in government. A mighty warrior, he showed 
even more ability as a statesman and a lawyer. He was well edu- 
cated, and amused himself with reading as well as with hunting. He 
took no pains to win popularity, and was indifferent to royal pomp. 
Generally shrewd and prudent, he was at times swayed by fierce 
bursts of passion which made him the terror of all around him. 

2. Henry's first business was to put an end to the disorders of 
The pestopa- Stephen's reign and bring back England to the con- 
tion of dition in which it was when Henry i. died. He sent 

OP ep, Stephen's Flemish mercenaries back to their work- 

shops. He annulled his predecessor's lavish grants of land, and 
called upon the barons who had built castles without the king's 
116 



Ii62.] HENRY II. OF ANJOU WJ 

permission to destroy them at once. These strongholds were called 
adulterine castles, and the barons bitterly resented their destruction. 
Some tried to resist by force, but Henry easily put down their 
rebellions. He compelled Malcolm iv., king of Scots, who had 
recently succeeded his father David, to surrender the northern 
counties and pay him homage. He led an expedition against 
Wales, and though his troops fled from the Welsh in disgraceful 
panic, the Welsh prince Owen found it prudent to make peace 
with him. But Owen's success secured the freedom of Grwynedd, 
even though, with Henry's help, the lords marcher regained their 
power in the east and south of Wales. 

3. After a few years the administrative system of Henry i. was 
fully restored. The Curia Regis and Exchequer were again hard at 
work; justice was executed, and the reign of law 
upheld. In carrying out these chang'es, Henry's chief g °^g^^ 
helpers were Richard of Lucy and Robert, earl of • 
Leicester, who divided between them the office of justiciar. 
!Nigel, bishop of Ely, E-og-er of Salisbury's nephew, became treasurer. 
Perhaps the king's most trusted officer was Thomas of London, the 
chancellor, called in later times Thomas Becket. Thomas was the 
son of a London merchant, and first became important as arch- 
deacon of Canterbury. He was as indefatigable a worker as Henry 
himseK. Though an ecclesiastic, he seemed wholly devoted to the 
interests of the king. So convinced was Henry of his loyalty that 
in 1162 he procured his appointment as archbishop of Canterbiuy. 
Henry's wish in raising him to this office was to have an arch- 
bishop of his own way of thinking. He was jealous of the growing 
claims of the Church, and thought that the privileges claimed by 
ecclesiastics stood in the way of the extension of the royal power. 
He thought the best way to make his reforms acceptable to church- 
men was to have an archbishop by his side with whom he could 
work as cordially as William i. had worked with Lanfranc. 
Thomas took a very different view of his new office. He hesitated 
i;o accept the post because, as he said, he knew that Henry's 
ecclesiastical policy would differ from that which as archbishop it 
would be his duty to uphold. Much to Henry's disgust he resigned 
the office of chancellor. As chancellor he had been the most 
zealous of servants of the king, but as archbishop he became a 
strenuous upholder of ecclesiastical privileges. He gave up his 
pompous and magnificent manner of life, and lived as strictly and 
austerely as a monk. He took Anselm as his model, and resolved 
to maintain strenuously all the rights of the Church. It was 



Il8 HENRY II. OF ANJOU [1162- 

inevitable, under these circumstances, that Henry and Thomas 
should soon quarrel. Disputes at once arose upon various grounds. 
Thomas complained that the king had appropriated some of the 
property of the archbishopric, and opposed a plan of Henry's for 
changiag the method of levytiig some taxes. Soon these quarrels 
sank into insignificance as compared with the question of the trial 
of criminous clerks. 

4. From early times the Church had had courts of its own 
under the control of the bishops. Ever siace William the Con- 
queror's law separating the bishop's court from that 

and^he'^^ of the hundred, these ecdesiastical courts had been 

question of steadily increasing in importance. They administered 

criminous ^ special law of their own called Canon Law, whose 
clcpks 

cliief source was the decrees of the popes. The anarchy 

of Stephen's reign had immensely increased the importance of the 

Church courts, for they continued their regular meetings when 

civil war had made irregular the sessions of the king's courts of 

justice. By this time the courts of the Church had become rivals 

to the courts of the State. They claimed to try not only all 

ecclesiastical suits, but all cases in which clergymen were concerned. 

It was thought to be against the privileges of the Church for a clerk 

to be brought before one of the king's courts. This claim was the 

more dangerous from the wide sense in which the word " clerk " was 

used. iNot only persons in holy orders, bishops, priests, deacons, 

and sub-deacons, were clerks ; the term included a multitude of 

persons in minor orders, and a still larger number who had merely 

been set apart to the service of the Church by receiving the tonsure. 

In short, nearly every man who could read was called a cleric, and 

claimed as such the privilege of being tried in the Church court 

only. Things were made worse because the ecclesiastical judges 

were lenient to brother clergymen, and because they could inflict 

no harsher punishment than imprisonment. In those days death, 

mutilation, and torture were regarded as the apjpropriate penalties 

for more heinous crimes. 

5. To an order-loving king like Henry, the exemption of the 
clergy from the jurisdiction of his courts was most unpalatable. 
The dispute ^^ ^'^^ brought several clerks before his own judges, 
between and was bitterly indignant when Thomas denounced 
Thomaf "*^ his action as a breach of the Hberties of the Church. 

In great disgust, Henry summoned the bishops to 
meet at Westminster, and asked them whether in the future they 
were willing to accept the old customs of the realm as they existed 



-1164.] HENRY 11. OF ANJOU IIQ 

in the days of Ms grandf atlier. The "bishops agTeed to this " saving- 
the rights of their order." Thereupon, Henrj drew up in writing 
a list of these ancient customs which in January, 1164, was laid 
before a great council held at the king's hunting-lodge of Clarendon, 
near Salisbury. For this reason it was called the Constitutions of 
Clarendon. 

6. The sixteen articles of the constitutions covered the whole 

ground of the relations of Church and State. They provided that 

clerks accused of crimes should be brought before the ^, „ 

,T , , The Consti- 

king's justices. If they could j)rove that they were tutions of 

clergymen they were to be sent to the Church courts Clarendon, 
to be tried ; if convicted, the ecclesiastical court was 
to degrade them from their orders, and then they were to be 
brought back to the king's court and to receive, as laymen, a lay- 
man's punishment. The Church courts were to be carefully 
watched, and their jurisdiction limited to strictly ecclesiastical 
matters. Moreover, the rules which William the ConcLueror had 
di'awn up to determine doubtful points between Church and State 
were to be reasserted. The compromise arranged between Henry i. 
and Anselm was reaffirmed, and bishops were to hold their lands 
like other barons. Appeals to Rome were not to be made without 
the king's consent, and prelates were to be elected in the king's 
chapel under the king's eye. 

7. After a momentary acquiescence, Thomas refused to accept 
the Constitutions of Clarendon, declaring them to be against the 
liberties of the Church. Henry was moved to deep Thomas 
indignation, and resolved to ruin him. Courtiers leaves 
were encouraged to bring lawsuits against him, and ^^ ^ 
Henry called upon him to give an account of the money which he 
had received when he was chancellor. The king*'s violence gave 
Thomas a better argument than he had previously had for rejecting 
the constitutions. If the king's courts could be made the instru- 
ment for ruining the king's enemies, it was not unreasonable that 
the Church should strive to protect her clergy from such unright- 
eous bodies. As in the days of Anselm, most of the bishops were 
on the king's side, and begged Thomas to submit. In the Council 
of Northampton, October, 1164, the archbishop met Henry face to 
face and refused to surrender. The justiciar declared Thomas 
a traitor, whereupon the archbishop appealed to the pope and 
withdrew. A few days later he sailed in disguise to France. The 
angry king banished all his kinsfolk from England. 

8. For six years Thomas remained abroad and carried oil 



120 



HENRY II. OF ANJOU [1164- 



a violent controversy with the king-. He was disgusted to find 
that the pope, Alexander iii., gave him only a lukewarm support. 
Alexander himseK was engaged at the moment in 
petiSn^o a great quarrel with the powerful Emperor Frederick 
England, Barbarossa, who had driven him from Italy to France. 
^^^°* In his distress the pope was anxious not to break 

utterly with so mighty a prince as Henry, and did what he could 
to smooth matters over. Henry, on his part, was desirous of avoiding 
a breach with the pope. Gradually he became more reasonable, 
and after years of exile even Ttomas was less stiS in his attitude. 
At last, in 1170, a vague agreement was patched up. Henry and 
Thomas met in France ; they said not a word about the Constitutions 
of Clarendon, but the king promised to restore the archbishop and 
his friends, and to be guided by his counsel in future. On Decem- 
ber 1, 1170, Thomas returned to England and took up his abode 
at Canterbury. During the negotiations for his restitution fresh 
causes of difficulty had arisen. The king's eldest son, Henry, was 
now a young man, and the king, following a custom usual in France, 
resolved to have him crowned during his own lifetime, so that the 
prince might learn the business of kingcraft under his father's 
eye, and share with him the heavy task of governing his vast 
dominions. The younger Henry's coronation took place on Whit 
Sunday, 1170. To crown the king was one of the most cherished 
rights of the archbishop of Canterbury, but, as Thomas was still 
abroad, Roger, archbishop of York, a close supporter of the king, 
had performed the ceremony. Thomas bitterly complained of this 
as a violation of the privileges of Canterbury, and excommunicated 
Archbishop Roger and all the bishops who took part in the cere- 
mony. Matters stood thus when Thomas returned to England. 
It is strange that Henry should have omitted to make terms with 
Thomas in this matter, but he probably thought that their agree- 
ment to let bygones be bygones included the question of the corona- 
tion as well as the Constitutions of Clarendon. He was at once 
disappointed in this hope. No sooner was Thomas established at 
Canterbury than he renewed the excommunication of the offending 
prelates. 

9. Henry was moved to a characteristic outburst of temper 
Murder of when he learned that the archbishop's return meant 
Thomas, a new quarrel. "What fools and dastards have I 

^^^°* nourished in my house," he cried, "that not one 

of them will avenge me on one upstart clerk ? " Four knights 
took Henry at his word, and rode straightway to Canterbury, 



-1 1 70.] 



HENRY II. OF ANJOU 



121 



which, they reached on December 29. They made their way 
to the archbishop's chamber and bade him forthwith obey the 
king's order and absolve the excommunicated bishops. Thomas 
declared that he was only obeying- 
the pope, and gave the knights 
no satisfaction. They left him 
in a rage, and the archbishop 
went into the cathedral, where 
the terrified monks were singing 
vespers. Meanwhile the knights 
put on their armour and, accom- 
panied by a band of soldiers, fol- 
lowed Thomas into the church. 
The archbishop's attendants 
would have closed the door which 
led from the cloister into the 
north transept. Thomas forbade 
them to do this, and moved 
slowly up the steps into the 
choir, as the four knights burst 
into the building. They cried, 
" Where is the traitor ? " 
Thomas then returned to the 
transept, crying, " Here am I ; 
not traitor, but archbishop and 
priest of God." A fierce alter- 
cation followed, but soon the 
knights drew their swords and 
slew him as he stood. His last 
words were, " For the Name of Jesus and in defence of the 
Church, I am ready to embrace death." 

10. The cruel murderers of Thomas had done the worst service 
they could to their master. Against the living archbishop Henry 
had been able to contend on equal terms, but he was c^nQ^iza- 
powerless to hold his own against the outburst tion of St. 
of popular indignation which attended their deed 
of blood. Men forgot that the cause for which 
Thomas had died was not the cause of the Church, but the cause 
of the see of Canterbury over its rival York. They hailed the 
dead archbishop as a martyr who had laid down his life for the 
sake of justice. Stories were spread of his sanctity and devout- 
ness. It was believed that miracles were wrought by his mangled 




X Place where St. Thomas uias slain. 

PLAK OF CHRIST CHURCH, CANTER- 
BURY. 

(The buildings are mainly of later date 
than 1170.) 



Thomas of 
Canterbury. 



122 HENRY II. OF ANJOU [1166- 

femains. Pilgrims flocked from all Christendom to do honour 
to the martyr's tomb in Canterbury Cathedral. Alexander ill., who 
had neglected him in his life, declared him a saint after his death. 
All went ill with Henry until he solemnly renounced the 
Constitutions of Clarendon, bought off the threatened censures of 
the pope by an unconditional submission, and puirged himself of 
complicity in Thomas's death. As the last sign of his penitence 
Henry himseK went on pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas,, 
and was scourged with rods as a penance for his hasty words. In 
the broader q[uestion of the treatment of criminous clerks the 
martyred archbishop secured a substantial yictory. From that 
time till the Reformation the ecclesiastical courts remained the sole 
tribunals in which a clerk could be condemned. All that Henry 
gained was that henceforth all persons accused of crimes were in 
the first instance brought before the king's tribunals ; but any 
criminal who could prove that he was a clergyman, was allowed 
what was called benefit of clergy, and the king's courts had no more 
to say to him. It shows how widespread was clerical privilege that 
the proof of clergy required was ability to read Latin. Despite 
all Henry's power the Church remained a state within the State^ 
and the strongest of his successors was warned by the great king's 
failure to respect those inordinate privileges of the clergy for which 
Thomas thought he had laid down his life. 

11. The long strug-gle with Archbishop Thomas quickened rather 
than slackened Henry's zeal to improve the government of his 
Henry's dominions. Hitherto he had been content to restore 

peign as a the system of Henry i. iN^ow that he had accomplished 
pepiod of that, he began to devise new laws of his own. Henry i. 

9-1X13.1 firs. 1X19." 

tion between ^^^ done a great work, but in his scheme the old 
Normans popular institutions of Anglo-Saxon times and the new 
an ngis . nionarchical institutions of the IN'orman kings had 
not been completely welded into a single scheme. It was the 
special work of Henry 11. to put an end to thi-s double system. His 
reign has been called a period of amalgamation, because he joined 
together what was best in old and new alike. Before he died the 
old local courts of the shire and hundred were closely bound 
together with the new royal courts administered by the king's 
officials. 'Noi only was there an amalgamation of English and 
Korman institutions ; the English and Norman races, which had 
hitherto stood apart from each other, were similarly united by 
community of interests and frequent intermarriages. We have the 
testimony of one of Henry's ministers that the two peoples were 



-1 176.] HENRY 11. OF ANJOU 1 23 

already so indistinguisliable that no one knew wlio was a Norman 
or who was an Englishman by race. The higher classes still spoke 
French, and French Christian names alone were popular. But 
these French-speaking Englishmen were becoming English in feel- 
ing, and as the old Norman families died out, new ones arose who 
had neither estates nor kinsmen in Normandy, and were sometimes 
purely English in blood. 

12. lienry 11. was one of the greatest legislators in Eng'Ksh 
history. The most important of his laws are called Assizes, and 
the first of these was the Assize of Clarendon, drawn up -jj^g Assize of 
in that same Wiltshire hunting-lodge that had witnessed Clarendon, 
the beginning of Henry's struggle with Becket. The ^^^^* 
Assize of Clarendon completed the constitution of the new judicial 
system, towards which things had been drifting since the reign of 
Henry i. By it the king's justices were directed to go on circuit 
throughout the country, and visit every shire in turn and try 
criminals. At their coming each county court was to choose a 
committee of landholders, which was to bring before it all persons 
suspected of criminal offences within the shire. This body was 
called a juinf because its members were sworn {jurati) to accuse 
truly. It was called a jury of presentment because it presented 
criminals for trial before the justice. The justice represented the 
new jurisdiction of the crown, the jury the old popular court of the 
shire. Their combination in this judicial system proved permanent. 
The modern Grand Juinf still continues to discharge the work of 
Henry's juries of presentment, and to this day the king's fj^g Assize of 
judges go on circuit to each shire after the fashion Northamp- 
systematized by the Assize of Clarendon. Ten years *°^' 1176, 
later the Assize of Clarendon was reissued in the Assize of North- 
ampton, which imposed severer penalties on offenders. 

13. Another law of Henry's, the Grand Assize of uncertain date, 
extended the jury system from criminal to civil cases. Since the 
Norman conquest, the ordinary way of deciding dis- 
putes about land was by trial by hatth. The idea was Assize*^" 
that the two claimants should fight out their claims 

with each other, and that God would work a miracle by giving the 
victory not to the better warrior, but to the man with the better 
claim. So crude a system now seemed impious to the clergy and 
foolish to the lawyer. The G-rand Assize gave claimants to estates 
the opportunity of referring their claim to the decision of a jury, as 
an alternative to the barbaric custom of trial by.battle. This was 
welcomed as an especial boon to the weak and feeble. 



124 HENRY II. OF ANJOU [1166- 

14. Another famous law of Henry's was the Assize of Arms of 
1181, by whicli the old English national militia of the fyrd was 
The Assize revised and organized. By it every freeman was re- 
ef Arms, qnired to provide himself with arms of a kind suitable 
^^^^' to his estate, so that he might when called upon defend 
the country from invasion or assist in putting down rebellion. This 
assize made the feudal service of the barons less important. Long 
before this the kings had established the custom of levying taxes 

called scutaqe, or shield-money, from the military 
tenants, whereby they paid to the crown sums of money 
instead of serving personally. With this money the king was able 
to hire professional soldiers, who fought better than the barons. 
But the mercenaries were expensive and unpopular, and after the 
Assize of Arms Henry employed them for foreign service only, 
and depended chiefly on the fyrd for home service. Despot 
though he was, he was popular enough to be able to trust the 
English people to bear arms, even though those arms might be used 
against him. 

15. In 1184 Henry issued the Assize of Woodstock, or the Assize 
of the Forest. He was an indefatigable hunter, and his chief object 
The Assize of waste protect the game which -he preserved for his 
Woodstock, sport. Moreover, like his predecessors, Henry regarded 

the forests as the districts specially subject to his 
arbitrary control. This assize accordingly was very severe, and shows 
Henry's government at its worst. It was the first formal code of 
regulations drawn up for the forests, and something was gained 
when even a severe law was set up in place of the royal caprice 
which had hitherto alone regulated them. A system of forest 
courts was established analogous to those of the rest of the country. 
Even in the forests Henry found scope for his favourite system of 
juries. 

16. Henry 11. won back the authority over Britain as a whole 
which his grandfather had exercised. The lords marcher in Wales 
Henry II. 's ^^^gained the position which had been threatened under 
relations to Stephen ; but the princes of Gwynedd, though acknow- 
Seotland!^ lodging Henry as their overlord, were able in practice 

to keep him at arm's length. Thrice Henry led ex- 
peditions to the wilds of Snowdon, but not one of them was really 
successful. The result of this was that North Wales remained a 
strong and nearly independent national Welsh state ; but Welsh 
and marcher lords alike looked up to Henry as supreme. Under 
him the Welsh bishops finally accepted the claims of the archbishop 



-1 1 88.] HENRY II. OF ANJOU 12$ 

of Canterbury to be their metropolitan. In 1188 Arclibisliop 
Baldwin traversed Wales from end to end to preach a new 
crusade. Scotland, even more than Wales, felt the weight of 
Henry's arm. We have seen how he compelled Malcolm i\. to 
surrender the advantages won by David under Stephen. Mal- 
colm's brother and successor, William the Lion, was a warlike and 
powerful king. In 1173 he united with Henry's foreign and 
baronial enemies in a great attack on his power. Taken prisoner 
at Alnwick, he was forced, as the price of his release, to sign the 
ignominious treaty of Falaise ; by this he fully accepted Henry as 
liege lord of Scotland, and admitted English garrisons into Edin- 
burgh and other chief towns of his realm. 

17. Henry ii.'s reign is remarkable for the extension of the 
INorman power to Ireland. Ireland, which in the days of Anglo- 
Saxon barbarism had been the most civilized country ^^^ ^^^^ 

in western Europe, had now fallen far away from its period of 
ancient glory. The land was divided among many Irish inde- 
petty kings, who were always waging war against each 
other. Though one of these claimed to be overlord of the whole 
land, he had little real power. The old Celtic system, by which 
the chief of each tribe really ruled over his clansmen, still prevailed, 
and kept back the political development of the island. Danish 
chieftains bore rule over coast towns, such as Dublin, Cork, and 
Limerick, and added a new element to the general confusion. The 
Church was as disorganized as the State. 

18. The quarrels of the Irish with each other first gave the 
Kormans a pretext for establishing themselves in Ireland. The 
heroes of the Norman conquest of Ireland were the iyiq Norman 
Norman marchers of South Wales, who extended their conquest of 
power over the island by the same devices that had ^" ' 
secured for their grandfathers the richer parts of South Wales. 
Dermot, king of Leinster, was driven in 1166 from his dominions, 
and rashly invited some of the Norman lords of South Wales to 
help him to win them back. At their head was Richard of Clare, 
surnamed Stronghoiv, lord of Chepstow and palatine earl of 
Pembroke. He restored Dermot to his kingdom, married his 
daughter, and seized upon his dominions after his death. Other 
Norman adventurers followed his example, and added to the con- 
fusion of Ireland by setting up small feudal lordships in the districts 
which they had won by their swords. Henry ii. had no part in 
their conquests, but he became alarmed lest they should estabUsh 
a power dangerous to himself. In 1171 he betook himself to 



126 HENRY II. OF ANJOU [1159- 

Ireland, in order to establish Ms authority over Irish, Dane, and 
Norman alike. ISTone dared resist him. The native Irish welcomed 
him as their protector against the new-comers from Wales, and the 
Normans submitted because they had not sufficient strength to 
withstand him. In these circumstances it was easy for Henry 
to obtain acknowledgments of his supremacy from all the chief 
powers in Ireland. He added to his titles that of lord of Ireland, 
and set up an English government in Dublin. He introduced 
Norman ecclesiastics, who strove to reorganize the Irish Church 
after the Roman pattern. English traders established themselves 
in the towns, and strong castles kept the fertile plains in subjection. 
But the Irish clans held their own amidst the mountains and bogs, 
and everywhere Henry's influence was very superficial. In this 
fashion Henry carried out in a way the dreams of Edgar and 
William i. He was the first English king who was in any sense 
lord of all the British islands. 

19. By inheritance and marriage Henry was suzerain over all 
western France. From his father came the county of Anjou 

and Toiu'aine ; Normandy and Maine he inherited 
Emoi^^^^^^ from his mother ; his marriage made him duke of 

Aquitaine. His wife, Eleanor, was the heiress of the 
old line of the dukes of Aquitaine, whose authority extended over 
all south-western France, from the river Loire to the Pyrenees, and 
from the Bay of Biscay to the mountains of Auvergne and the 
Cevennes. The northern part of this region was the county of 
Poitou, whose capital was Poitiers. More to the south lay Gruienne 
and Gascony, of which the chief towns were Bordeaux and Bayonne. 
Over the whole of this region the French kings had never exercised 
any substantial authority, and even the dukes of Aquitaine were little 
more than its overlords. Real power belong-ed to the turbulent 
feudal nobles, whose constant feuds with each other, and with the 
towns, kept the whole land full of violence and bloodshed. Never- 
theless it was a rich and vigorous region, differing so widely from 
northern France that its inhabitants looked upon both king of 
Paris and dukes of Rouen as foreigners. South of the Doi*dogne 
the people spoke the Gascon or Proven9al tongue, which was a 
different language from the French of the north. They cherished 
dearly their local independence, and even a strong ruler like Henry 
was not able to subject them to the severe discipline which had 
made England peaceable and law-abiding. 

20. Eleanor of Aquitaine was a woman of vigorous character and 
unruly disposition. She had married Henry because she had been 



-1 174.] HEXRY II. OF ANJOU 12/ 

at variance witli her first Imsband, Louis vii. of France, who had 
wedded her for the sake of her dominions. Before long she quar- 
relled with Henry also, and inspired her sons to join Henry II. 
with her former husband in attempts to overthrow and his 
their father. It was easier for her to do this, since ^^'^^^' 
Henry was an affectionate father, and anxious to share with his sons 
the government of his dominions. We have seen how he crowned 
his eldest son Henry king in 1170, and proposed to make him his 
partner in power. He wished to establish the younger sons also 
in the government of some outlying portion of his dominions. 
Richard, the second son, was made duke of Aquitaine, and showed 
great valour and energy in his efforts to reduce his mother's in- 
heritance to some sort of order. Geoffrey, his third son, married 
the heiress of Brittany, and the lands under Henry's overlordship 
were still further extended when Greoffrey became reigning count of 
Brittany under his father's supremacy. John, the youngest and 
best beloved of Henry's sons, was married to the heiress of the 
great G-loucester earldom, and sent to rule Ireland. But none of 
Henry's sons were worthy of their father's generosity ; their, con- 
stant intrigues and rebellions embittered the last years of his life. 

21. !N^eighbouring princes were extremely jealous of Henry's 
great position, and did their best to undermine his power. Among 
his chief enemies was the count of Toulouse, the here- jjenrv's 
ditary rival of the duke of Aquitaine, and against him foreign 
Henry waged, in 1159, a war called the war of Toulouse ; Poliey. 
later on he compelled the count of Toulouse to do homage to him. 
The count of Toulouse was only saved from destruction by the help 
afforded him by Louis vii. of France, against whom The war of 
Henry had scruples in waging war because Louis was Toulouse, 
his overlord. In the hope of keeping up friendly relations ^ ^ °^' 
with France, Henry married his eldest son to Louis's daughter ; 
but Louis was as treacherous as Henry's own children. During the 
period when the outcry against Henry as the cause of St. Thomas's 
death had turned public opinion against him, Louis made an 
alliance with the young* king and his brothers E/ichard and Geoffrey. 
This grew into a great confederation of all the English king's 
enemies. "William of Scotland, as we have seen, joined the league, 
and the feudal barons, both in England and Normandy, jj^g wars of 
though afraid to attack Henry so long as he was at peace, 1 1 73 and 
eagerly availed themselves of his difficulties with his ^^'^^^ 
children and foreign neighbours to unfurl once more the banner 
of baronial independence. In 1173 and 1174 the great struggle 



128 



HENRY 11. OF ANJOU 



[1174- 



William i's Posessions in France- 
County of Anjou..- 

Continental Lands of Stephen... 
Inheritance of Eleanor of Aquitaine,..^- 
County of Brittany 

French King's Domain in 1185 B^ 

Boundary of French Monarchy 




Emery Walker sc 
FRANCE IN THE ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH CENTURIES, SHOWING THE 
CONTINENTAL DOMINIONS OF THE NORMAN AND ANGEVIN KINGS. 



-1 189.] HENRY II. OF ANJOU 1 29 

between Henry and his enemies extended from the Tweed to the 
Pyrenees. Henry was everywhere victorious. We have seen how 
he crushed William of Scotland and forced him to sign the 
humiliating treaty of Falaise. Lonis of France failed in his 
invasion of Normandy, and the fleet with which the younger Henry 
set out to invade England was scattered by a storm. The fidelity of 
the official class, and the loyalty of the English people, made it an 
easy matter for Henry to suppress the baronial rebellion. Over 
his nobles his triumph was a permanent one ; the rising of 1173 
and 1174 was the last of the many feudal revolts against the 
national monarchy which had begun a hundred years earlier with 
the rebellions of earls Ralph and Roger against William i. 

22. For the next few years Henry ruled in peace. With wonder- 
ful magnanimity he forgave his rebellious children, and restored 
them to their governments. He was now one of the Henry's 
greatest kings in Christendom, and foreign princes foreign 
eagerly sought his alliance. He married his daughters ^ lanees. 
to the kings of Castile and Sicily, the count of Toulouse, and to 
Henry the Lion, the greatest of the German dukes and the rival 
of the mighty Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. By these alliances, 
and by other means, Henry obtained powerful support against his 
natural enemy the king of France. He estabKshed friendship 
which long outlasted his life with Castile, the chief Spanish king- 
dom, with Germany, and with Flanders. For the rest of the Middle 
Ages there was a traditional friendship between England and these 
three lands, just as there was a traditional enmity with France. 
Thus the foreign policy of the Angevin king coloured the foreign 
policy of England for several centuries. 

23. The foUy and wickedness of his children cast a gloom over 
the last years of Henry's life. The young King Henry went to 
war with his brother Richard, and forced the old king ^j^^ rebel- 
to take up arms on behalf of the latter. In the course lions of 

of the struggle the young king expired in 1183. Henry's 
Geoffrey of Brittany died two years later, in 1185 ; 
but Richard still gave him plenty of trouble. In 1189 Richard 
once more rose in revolt, and made a close alliance with the son of 
Louis VII., Philip 11., called Augustus, who became king of France 
in 1180. It was a grievous disappointment to Henry that his 
youngest son, John, who had hitherto remained faithful, joined his 
brother in this rebellion. After this Henry had no heart to fight 
against his treacherous sons. Smitten with a mortal illness, he 
threw himself on his bed, and cried, " Let things go as they will : 



I30 HENRY 11. OF ANJOU [1189* 

I care no more for myself or for anytMng else in tke world." A 

few days later he died, on July 7, murmTiring-, " Shame, shame on 

a conquered king*." Here Henry was nnjust to him- 

d^^th^ U89 ^®^ 5 ^^^ "^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ being- undone, even by the 
treachery of his own sons. He had established the 
unity of Eng-land on so firm a basis that it could not be shaken 
even by the incompetence of those who came after him. 



CHAPTER VI 
RICHARD I. CCEUR DE LION (1189-1199) 

Chief dates : 

1 189. Accession of Richard i. 

I189-1192. Richard on Crusade. 

1 194. Richard's release and second visit to England. 

1 199. Death of Richard i. 

1. Richard of Aquitaine succeeded without difficulty to all Ms 
father's dominions. Despite his treachery to his father, he was 
not without noble quaUties, and shed bitter tears 
when he heard of Henry's miserable end.- Brought R^cliar^dl! °^ 
up amidst the constant tumults of his mother's in- 
heritance, he became a consummate warrior and a famous knight. 
He was tall and handsome, with fair hair and blue eyes. Well 
educated, he could, it was said, talk Latin better than an arch- 
bishop. He loved poetry, and was himseK a poet, while among 
his friends was Bertrand de Born, the greatest of the troubadours, 
or poets, of southern France. He had ability enough to make him 
a good ruler ; but he cared little for extending his power over his 
dominions, and threw his whole soul into the quest of personal 
adventures. He was the least English of our kings, and dui-ing 
his reign of ten years only paid two short visits to England. 
During those years his exploits as a warrior made him the hero of 
all Christendom, and gained him his surname of Richard the Lion 
Heart. But the personal adventures of the king go on quite 
different lines from the history of his kingdom. 

2. When Richard became king, all Eui-ope rang with the preach- 
ing of a new crusade. The Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, estab- 
lished by the First Crusade, had long fallen into evil pje^apd and 
days. The energy of the western lords of Syria the Third 
withered away amidst a tropical climate and oriental 9r^Q^^®' 
surroundings. For a time the Crusaders held their 
own because of the divisions of their Mohammedan enemies. At last 
a great Mohammedan state grew up in Syria, whose head was the 

131 



132 



RICHARD I. CCEUR DE LION 



[1187- 



Sultan Saladin. In 1187 Saladin won a great victory over the 
Christians, and wrested from them Jerusalem itself. The crusading 
kingdom was reduced to a few seaport towns, and would clearly he 
destroyed altogether unless Christendom united in a great crusade 
to restore it. The new expedition, called the Third Crusade, was 
preached with energy and success. Frederick Barharossa, the old 
emperor, and Philip Augustus, the young king of France, both took 
the cross. To Richard the crusade offered the chance of personal 




Emery Walker sc. 



adventure and military distinction such as he loved. He went to 
England, was crowned king, and used every means to raise money 
to equip himseK and his followers on the crusade. He sold to the 
highest bidder the chief offices of Church and State in England. 
William Longchamp, bishop of Ely, a foreigner by birth, bought 
the offices of chancellor and justiciar. He allowed William of Scot- 
land to renounce the hard conditions of the treaty of Falaise in 
return for a money payment. So eager was he to amass treasure 
that he declared that he would have sold London could he have 
found a purchaser. Then he started for Palestiue, and England saw 
no more of him for five years. Richard travelled to the Holy Land 
by way of France. At Marseilles he took ship for the East, but 
tarried on his way in Sicily and Cyprus, where he married his wife 
Berengaria of Navarre. In 1191 he landed near Acre, the chief 



'1 194.] RICHARD I. CGEUR BE LION 1 33 

port of the crusading* king-dom, wliich had recently fallen into 
Saladin's hands. Philip Augustus had arrived there before him, 
and the two kings soon forced Acre to surrender. From Acre 
Hichard marched towards Jerusalem, and arrived within a few 
miles of the holy city ; but bad weather prevented further progress, 
especially as the French and Eng-lish elements in the army were 
quarrelling- bitterly with each other. PhiKp Aug'ustus was already 
jealous of his old ally, and hurried back to Europe to profit by his 
absence. In these circumstances all Richard's personal heroism 
could not procure complete success for his cause. In 1192 he made 
a truce by which the Christians were consoled in some measure for 
the loss of Jerusalem by the condition that pilgrims were allowed 
free access to the holy j^laces. 

3. Richard then started to return to Europe ; news reached him 
that Philip Augustus was so hostile that the direct route back 
through France was unsafe. Richard therefore Richard's 
determined to travel by way of Germany. To avoid captivity in 
attention he went in disguise, accompanied by only a "^^^i^-^^y* 
few followers ; but he soon attracted notice, and near Yienna was 
arrested by Leopold, duke of Austria, an old crusader with whom 
he had quarrelled in the Holy Land. The supreme ruler of Ger- 
many was now the Emperor Henry yi.. son of Frederick Barbarossa, 
who had died on the crusade. Henry yi. hated Richard because 
he had given a refuge to his brother-in-law, Henry the Lion, 
whom Frederick Barbarossa had expelled from Germany. He 
welcomed i^he accident which had brought Richard within Leopold's 
power, and soon the Austrian duke handed Richard over to the 
emperor's direct custody. Henry kept Richard in prison until he 
agreed to pay the enormous ransom of £100,000 — a sum almost 
amounting to two years of the royal revenue, at a time when the 
people were taxed to the uttermost. Besides this, Richard was 
forced to surrender his kingdom to the Emperor, and receive 
it back as a fief of the empire. In compensation for tliis humi- 
liation Henry granted Richard the kingdom of Burgimdy, or 
Aries — a grant which meant nothing at all, as Henry had little 
power over that district. Meanwhile strenuous efforts were made 
to raise the king's ransom. Every landholder was called upon to 
pay a fourth of his income, and the very chalices in the churches 
were melted down to make up the sum. By 1194 the money was 
paid, and Richard was free to go home. 

4. During the five years of Richard's absence there had been 
much confusion and some civil war in England. Yet it was a 



134 RICHARD I. CCEUR DE LION [1189- 

remarkable testimony to the abiding strengtli of Henry ii.'s 
administrative system that the machinery of goyernment continued 

to work even in the absence of the sovereig*n. Bishop 
duping Long-champ, the insticiar.was not a snccessfnl minister. 

Richard's He o:ffiended the barons by his pride and his foreign 
^1*89^1 194 '^^ySj ^h<i "tliey called on Earl John, the king's yonnger 

brother, to help them to drive him from power. 
Longchamp conld not resist the force they brought against him, 
and was forced in 1191 to quit the reahn. At that moment 
Walter of Coutances, archbishop of Rouen, came back from 
crusade with a letter from E-ichard, nominating him as justiciar. 
The barons accepted the king's candidate, and the archbishop 
ruled Engiand peaceably for two years. But when Richard's 
captivity was known, Philip of Erance invaded [Normandy, and 
tried to capture Rouen. John allied himself with the French 
king, and rose in revolt against Richard. It is good evidence 
that the archbishop of Rouen was a wise minister, that he drove 
Philip out of Normandy, put down John's revolt, and raised the 
king's ransom. 

0. In 1194 Richard again appeared in England. His second 
visit was almost as short as his first, and, as before, he devoted 
England most of his energy to raising money. He generously 

from 1194 forgave his treacherous brother, but was eager to have 
to 1199. revenge on the French king, who had striven to rob 

him of his dominions when he was the emperor's captive. Leav- 
ing his comrade on the crusade, Hubert Walter, archbishop of 
Canterbury, as justiciar, Richard soon left England, and was never 
seen there again. He spent the rest of his life in waging war 
against the French king, and left the whole administration of 
England in the hands of the justiciar. Hubert Walter was a 
nephew of Ranulf Grlanville, justiciar of Henry 11., and had been 
well trained in the work of administration. He was powerful 
enough to make several improvements in the administrative 
system, and was ingenious in devising expedients to supply Richard 
with money for fighting his battles. In 1198 he imposed such 
burdens upon the people that they could bear them no longer. 
When called upon to furnish knights to fight for Richard in France, 
the barons resisted. Hugh of Avalon, bishop of Lincoln, a saintly 
man who had once been a hermit, made himseH the spokesman 
of the opposition. He declared that he would rather go back to 
his old hermit's life than lay fresh burdens on the tenants of his 
bishopric. Hubert was forced to withdraw the proposal, and soon 



-1 199.] 



RICHARD I. CCEUR DE LION 



135 



after resigned office. His successor was a layman, Geoffrey Fitz 
Peter, earl of Essex. 

6. During all these years Ricliard was doing Ms best to break 
down the power of Philip of France, and achieved a fair measure of 
success. To protect Rouen and iSTormandy from in- 
vasion he built a new castle on a chalk cliff dominat- 
ing the Seine, near the town of Les Andelys. It was 
a large and well-planned structure, and it was built 
within twelve months. Proud of hie skill as an engineer, E/ichard 
cried, " Is not this a fine saucy baby of mine, this child of a year old ? " 
From this jest Richard's 



Richard's 
last wars 
and death, 
1199. 






castle took its name of Clici- 
teau Gaillard — that is, Saucy 
Castle. Gallant soldier though 
he was, Richard's campaigns 
were somewhat unfruitful. 
His energies were consumed 
in petty wars which had no 
real influence on events. In 
one of these he met his death 
in 1199. A vassal of Richard's, 
lord of Chains, near Limoges, 
discovered a treasure buried 
in the earth. Richard claimed 
the find for himself, on the 
ground that, as treasure-trove, 
it belonged to him as over- 
lord. His vassal resisted, and 
Richard went in person to be- 
siege the castle of Chains, 
which the rebel held against 
him. One day, as the king 

was watching the progress of the siege, he was struck in the breast 
by the bolt of a crossbow. The wound was treated by so unskilful 
a surgeon that the flesh mortified. As Richard lay dying the 
castle was taken, and the soldier who had shot him was brought 
captive before him. " What have I done to thee," said the dying 
king, " that thou shouldst slay me ? " " Thou hast slain," answered 
the archer, " my father and two of my brothers ; torture me as thou 
wilt, I shaU die gladly since I have slain thee." Richard ordered 
the man to be set free. He then gathered his barons round him, 
and urged them to accept John as his successor. He died on 




D.Keep 
R.Oiitworfis leading 
to River Seine 



Emery U'alkci sc. 
PLAN OF CHATEAU GAILLARD. 



136 RICHARD 1. CCEUR DE LION [1199. 

April 6, 1199, and, in spite of his commands, the crossbowman 
was cruelly put to death. Though he had done so little for 
England, Hichard's reputation as a warrior long kej)t his memory 
green. Apart from his personal exploits, the importance of his 
reign rests in the fact that it proved that the foundations of the 
system of Henry 11. had been so carefully laid that the ministers 
were able to rule England in peace, despite Richard's absence and 
neglect. 



CHAPTER VII 
JOHN LACKLAND (1199-1216) 

Chief dates : 

^ I199. Accession of John. 

1204. Loss of Normandy. 

1208. England put under Interdict. 

1213. John's submission to Innocent iii. 

1215. The Great Charter. 

1216. Death of John. 

1. Ox Hichard's death Jolm hurried to Eng'land, and easily got him- 
self accepted as king. He was not. the nearest heir by birth, for 
his elder brother, Geoffrey of Brittany, had left a son 
named Arthur. Many who distrusted John wished f °|P®^^/?qq°^ 
that Arthur should succeed Richard. But Arthur was 
a boy, and it was quite in accordance with old English precedent 
that his uncle, who was a grown man, should be preferred to him. 
Philip of France, ever anxious to make mischief in the Angevin 
dominions, supported Arthur's cause ; but Queen Eleanor, though 
now very old, used all her influence against her grandson, and in 
favour of her youngest son. On May 27 John was crowned in 
Westminster Abbey by Hubert Walter. 

2. John's previous career was ominous for the future. When 
sent as a young man to rule Ireland, his xjetulance and f oUy had 
so disgusted the Irish chieftains that Henry 11. was 
compelled to withdraw from him the government of p^ct^r 
the island. We have seen already his treachery and 
ingratitude to his father and elder brother. Able, like all the 
Angevins, and capable, on occasion, of energetic action, both as a 
warrior and statesman, he wrecked his whole career by the narrow 
selfishness which sacrificed all his highest interests to gratify the 
caprice of the moment. His life was foul ; he was cruel, treacherous, 
and deceitful ; he could be bound by no promise, and kept stead- 
fast in no course of action. The history of William E-ufus had 
shown that a bad man might be a competent king. As a man, John 

137 



138 JOHN LACKLAND [1199- 

was not mucli worse than Ruf ns ; as a king, lie was ntterly lacking" 
in tkat intelligent sense of seK-interest wMch. gave purpose to 
E<-ufiis's wickedest acts of tyranny. From tke beginning of Ms reign 
lie was only saved from disaster by the restraining influence ex- 
ercised over him by three wise advisers. His mother, Eleanor, 
secured his succession to the whole of the Angevin Empire. 
Hubert Walter, the archbishop of Canterbury, kept up some sort 
of terms between Mm and the Church. The justiciar, Geofeey Eitz 
Peter, manag*ed, despite many obstacles, to carry on the internal 
government of England on the lines laid down by Henry 11, As 
time went on the removal of these three faithful friends left John 
free to follow his own caprice, and in each case his personal action 
involved Mm in humiliation and disaster. The death of Eleanor 
was quickly followed by the loss of Normandy. The death of 
Hubert Walter soon led to a mortal quarrel with the Church. 
When Eitz Peter died John blundered into a quarrel with Ms 
English subjects wMch cost him his greatest and last humiliation. 
E-ound these three great calamities the history of his reign centred. 
The Angevin Empire, wMch had survived the neglect of Eichard, 
was destroyed by the active tyranny of John. 

3. It was with great difficulty that Eleanor had succeeded in 
winning over all the Angevin dominions in France to John's side. 
John and ^^® ^^® helped by the treachery of Philip 11., who 
Arthup of took up arms on Arthur's behaK, but kept all the con- 
Brittany, qnests he made for MmseK. TMs annoyed Arthur's 
friends so much that they made terms with John, and finally, 
in 1200, Philip himself recognized his rival as his brother's heir. 
WitMn a few months of tMs recogmtion John's folly and greed 
compelled him to fight once more for his domimons. He repudiated 
his rich wife Isabella of Gloucester, and married Isabella of 
Angouleme, the heiress of the county of that name. Isabella was 
betrothed to Hugh of Lusignan, count of La Marche, the most 
powerful of the lords of Poitou, who was bitterly incensed at losing 
both the lady and her possessions. He called upon the barons of 
Poitou to help him ; many of these had grievances of their own 
against their capricious sovereign, and they willingly appealed to 
PMlip II. as overlord to protect them from the lawless acts of their 
immediate lord. After long* delays Philip accepted their appeal, 
and in 1202 sionmoned John to Paris to answer the complaints 
brought against him. John refused to appear, and the court of the 
French king condemned him to lose all his lands in France. Philip 
at once invaded Normandy, in the hope of enforcing the sentence 



12 14-] JOHN LACKLAND 139 

m person. He recognized Arthmr of Brittany as lord of Aqnitaine 
and AnjoTi, and invited liim to conquer liis inheritance. Arthur, 
thongh only fifteen years old, showed gallantry and resolution. He 
invaded Poiton, and took possession of Mirebeau, one of its chief 
strongholds. His grandmother, Eleanor, who was in the town, was 
forced to take refuge in the castle, where she was strictly blockaded 
by her grandson. John himseK came to his mother's rescue, 
defeated Arthur's troops, and took his nephew prisoner. Arthur 
was imprisoned at Rouen, and was murdered in 1203 by his uncle's 
orders. Next year old Queen Eleanor died, and John's cause 
speedily collapsed. 

4. Philip II. threw all his energies into the conquest of 
Normandy. John remained inactive at Rouen, and seemed un- 
moved by his rival's successes. " Let Philip go on," -j-he loss of 
he said ; " whatever he takes, I shall retake it in a Normandy 
single day." At last Philip besieged Chateau GaiUard. and Anjou. 
Richard's favourite castle held out gallantly for eight months, and 
its reduction was one of the greatest feats of military engineering of 
the time. John made but feeble efforts to succour the garrison, and 
in April, 1204, Philip captured the place by assault. Normandy was 
now open to attack, and many of its barons, disgusted with John's 
slackness, made common cause with the Erench king. With the 
surrender of Rouen in June, the whole of the duchy passed into 
Philip's hands. Next year Philip established his power over the 
greater part of Poitou. Anjou was overrun with equal ease, and 
by 1206 John's authority over France was limited to the lands 
south of the Charente. 

5. For the rest of his reig'n John made half-hearted and gene- 
rally unsuccessful attempts to reconquer his father's lands, and the 
levity and instability of the Poitevin barons gave him 

many chances of turning the tables on Philip. His Lg, Roche au 
most serious attempt was made in 1213, when he Moine and 
managed to win back much of the ground lost in ^21*4^"^^* 
Poitou and Anjou, His nephew Otto, son of his 
sister and Henry the Lion, who had been brought up at his court, 
was now Roman emperor, through the support of Pope Inno- 
cent III. Otto, however, soon quarrelled with the pope, and as 
John was also on bad terms with Rome, uncle and nephew worked 
closely together. As Philip of France was the close ally of Inno- 
cent, Otto and John formed a great league of excommunicated 
princes against him. In 1214, while Otto carried on the war in the 
northern frontier of France, John went to Anjou and besieged the 



I40 JOHISr LACKLAND [1205- 

castle of La Eoclie an Moine, on the Loire, Louis, Philip 11. 's 
eldest son, led an army to its relief, and a battle seemed imminent, 
but at the last moment John shirked an engagement, and fled to 
the sonth. In the same year Otto was defeated by Philip in a 
great battle at Bouvines, near Tournai. This double disaster broke 
up the coalition. It secured the establishment of Philip's power 
in Anjou and Poitou, and for the rest of his life domestic concerns 
occupied John too fully to allow him to contend any longer against 
his adversary. Henceforth the northern parts of the Angevin 
empire were permanently annexed to France. Though the circum- 
stances of their loss was very disgraceful to John, yet the separa- 
tion of England and ]N'ormandy proved, in the long run, a good 
thing for France and England. The two countries were bound to 
remain separate and independent nations, and it was best for both 
that they should be so. Philip's conquests so immensely increased 
the strength of France that henceforward the French monarchy, 
so feeble under the early Capetians, became one of the greatest 
states of Europe. It was also a gain to England that Normandy 
should no longer be under the rule of the Eng'lish king. Up to 
then many English barons had had estates in both countries, and 
the consequent division of their interests made it hard for them to 
become good Englishmen. They had now to choose between 
France and England. Those who had their main estates in 
Engiand lost their Norman possessions, so that their sole interests 
were for the future on this side of the channel. Thus the separa- 
tion of the kingdom and the duchy was another step forward in the 
growth of English un.ity and English national feeling. The 
Norman aristocracy of England had no longer any reason for acting 
otherwise than as Englishmen. 

6. In 1205 Hubert Walter, the wise archbishop of Canterbury, 
died. His death removed a powerful check from the king, and a 
The disDuted ^^P^^^ about the succession soon led John into a 
election at fierce conflict with the Church. The right of electing 
Canterbury, aj^y bishop rested with the chapter of his cathedral, 
and the Benedictine monks of the cathedral of Christ 
Church, Canterbury, had an undoubted legal claim to choose the 
new archbishoj). But the monks were apt to take a narrow view 
of their duty, and to forget that the selection of the head of the 
English Church was a business that concerned the whole country. 
As a matter of fact, the king had always a large share in deciding 
who was to be archbishop, and the tendency was to reduce what 
was called the canonical election by the chapter to the mere form. 



-J207.] JOHN LACKLAND ' I4I 

€f the monks accepting the king's nominee. On this occasion, 
however, the monks of Christ Church could not agree among each 
other or with the king. The younger brethren, thinking of the 
interests of their monastery, rather than the interests of the 
Church as a whole, elected as archbishop their sub-prior Reginald, 
a boastful and commonplace monk, with no claim to so distin- 
guished an office. They did not ask John's permission to proceed 
to election, and made their choice in the utmost secrecy. They 
sent Heginald to Rome to get ihe pallium from the pope, and told him 
to say nothing about their action. Reginald, however, was so pleased 
with his new dignity that he could not keep it to himseK. News of 
the monks' hasty choice soon reached John, who in great ang-er 
ordered the chapter to choose one of his ministers, John de Grey, 
bishop of Norwich, who was a mere politician. Some of the monks 
consented to do this from fear of the king, and soon Grey also was 
urging the pope to give him the pallium as the rightly elected 
archbishop. 

7. As supreme head of the Church the popes had long claimed 
a voice in the appointment of the chief ecclesiastical dignitaries. 
A disputed election such as this always gave them a 

special opportunity of interfering* with effect. The procures 
Roman see was now held by Innocent iii., who was Langton's 
perhaps the most powerful of all the popes of the ^J^t"i207 
Middle Ages. He was eager to extend his influence in 
every direction, and being a high-minded and honourable man, 
was anxious that the best possible person should become archbishop 
of Canterbury. He soon convinced himseK that both Reginald 
and John were unfit for so great a burden. He summoned repre- 
sentatives of the chapter to Rome, and advised them to pass over 
both candidates and make a fresh election. He recommended them 
to choose Stephen Langton, an EngKshman by birth, and a famous 
theologian, who was then Kving at Rome as a cardinal of the 
Roman Church. The monks could not resist papal pressure, 
and elected Langton. Thereupon Innocent gave him the pallium, 
and consecrated him bishop with his own hands. 

8. Langton was likely to be a much better archbishop than the 
foolish monk and the greedy worldling respectively favoured by 
chapter and king. Buthowever wise Innocent's appoint- Quappel of 
ment was, it was a dangerous thing- that the head of John and 
the English Church should be forced upon the countiy ^J^^ocent III. 
by the pope, and wiser kings than John might well have hesitated 
to accept the nomination from Rome. There is no need, however, to 



142 JOHN LACKLAND [1208-' 

suppose tliat deep motives of policy and a hig-h-miiided desire to 
resist papal aggression moved John to resist Innocent's nominee. 
John's sole wish was to get as archbishop a dependant who would 
help him to plunder and oppress the Church. But, whatever his- 
motives, he would not give way to the pope, and as Innocent was 
equally unbending', a fierce conflict broke out between them. Mean- 
while the church of Canterbury remained vacant, for Innocent 
would not recognize Grey, and John would not allow Langton 

to enter the country. After a year Innocent put Eng- 
d "^^ ^^?o^' ^^'^^ under an interdict. An interdict was one of the 

severest punishments which the Church could inflict. 
By it all public worship was forbidden ; churches were closed ; no 
bell was tolled ; the dead were buried in unconsecrated ground 
without any religious rites ; it was a favour that the dying were 
admitted to the last sacraments, and baptism allowed to the new- 
born child. Men thought that God's favour was withdrawn from a 
land under interdict, and in that age of faith the loss of the con- 
solations of the Church was a thing grievous to be borne. John, 
who was as godless as William Eufus, cared little for the interdict. 
He was strong* enough to force many of the clergy to continue their 
services and ignore the pope's orders. Those> priests who observed 
the interdict were driven into banishment. A year passed by, 
John's ex- ^^^ John remained as obstinate as ever. In 1209 
eommuniea- Innocent excoTyimunicated John ; that is to say, he 
tion, 1209. refused to allow him to participate in any of the ser- 
vices of the Chujch. The king was as careless of excommunica- 
tion as he had been of the interdict, and Innocent was forced to 
seek a more e:ffiective weapon against him. As head of the Church 
the pope had long claimed the power of declaring that princes who 
were foes to the Church had ceased to reign over their dominions. 
By virtue of this Innocent bad already deposed John's nephew. 
Otto. In 1212 he declared that if John resisted any longer he 
would deprive him of his throne. Innocent called upon John's 
enemy, Philip 11., who was now a close friend of the papacy, to 
execute the sentence. Philip willingly accepted the commission, 
and prepared to invade England, 

9. John was seriously alarmed, and sought to buy off the 
John's sub- P^^P^'s hostility by an offer to accept Langton as 
mission to archbishop. Innocent insisted on a more abject sub- 
12^^^^"*' mission, and John, in despair, yielded to aE. his 

demands. In 1213 there cam.e to Dover a papal envoy 
named PanduK , appointed to reconcile John to the Church if he 



-I2I3.] JOHN LACKLAND I43 

fulfilled the hard conditions imposed upon him. Jolin agreed to 
recognize Langton as archbishop, to restore to their benefices the 
partisans of the pope whom he had banished, and to surrender his 
crown to the triumphant pope. Two days later he received it back 
again from Pandulf , on promising to be the pope's vassal for the 
future. Like any other feudal vassal, he took an oath of fealty to 
Innocent as to his suzerain, and performed the humiliating act of 
homage to the pope's representative. Moreover, he agreed to pay 
henceforth a tribute of 1000 marks a year to the E/oman see. 

10. Thus John became the vassal of the pope, as Richard had 
become the vassal of the emperor. To the men of the time there 
seemed little that was humiliating in both acts; to , . , 
moderns both seem equally disgraceful. As regards comes the 
their consequences, there was all the difference in the vassal of 
world between the two surrenders. The emperor's 

power was small, and constantly growing less. He had no means of 
enforcing his lordship over England, so that E-ichard's surrender 
was a mere form which even the emperor did not care to revive, 
and which was soon forgotten. The pope had more influence in 
every country in western Europe than the king, and he had in the 
clergy permanent agents of his will. To the enormous ecclesias- 
tical authority exercised by the pope in England after the Norman 
conquest was now added political supremacy as overlord. Hence- 
forth England was regarded as depending on Rome in the same 
way that Gascony depended on France, or Wales on En'gland. 
John, however, thought little of the ultimate consequences of his 
act, for to him it was but a move in the game. Henceforth he had 
the pope on his side, and having by his surrender stopj)ed the 
French invasion, he was in a position to renew the attacks on 
France, which ended so disastrously, as we have seen, at La Roche 
au Moine and Bouvines. Luckily he was turned from this j)urpose 
by a quarrel with his subjects. 

11. From his accession John had ruled England capriciously 
and tyrannically, and had offended many of the most powerful of 
his barons. It was, however, no new thing for king ^, j^„g„„u 
and nobles to be at variance. Since the days of the between 
conquest the king always relied upon his people as a j|?^JJ ^^*^ 
whole to support him against aristocratic revolt. But 

times had chang*ed since the reign of Henry 11. Cut off from 
lN"ormandy, the barons now thought mainly of England, and were 
rapidly forgetting the feudal tradition which had made it the 
ambition of each one of them to be a little king over his own 



144 JOHN LACKLAND [1213- 

estate. The l)aronial leaders were still turlbulent and seMsL. in their 
policy, but their object was henceforward not to upset the central 
§°overnnient so much as to take a prominent share in its ad- 
ministration. Their aims were henceforward so far national that 
there was no reason why Englishmen should not support them. 
Moreover, John had ruled so badly that the people might well 
support any party which aimed at reducing his authority. 

12. John's excessive demands for foreign service first fired the 
indignation of his barons. In 1213 many refused to follow him to 
Progress of Poi^o^ij and in 1214 the same magnates declined to 
the quarrel, pay a scutag'e which he demanded. While the king 
1213-1215. ^^g abroad the barons met in council, and Langton 
laid before them Henry i.'s charter of liberties, and advised 
them to obtain a similar document from John. Up to 1213 the 
prudent rule of the justiciar, Fitz Peter, had partly checked 
Jolin's tyranny ; but the justiciar now died, and John, with 
characteristic iugratitude, rejoiced at the removal of the restraint 
which G-eoffrey had im.posed upon him. During* John's long absence 
abroad the barons organized resistance. When he returned in 1214, 
he came back disgraced and vanquished. Finding that there was 
no chance of exacting concessions by peaceful means, the barons took 
arms and went to war against their sovereign. Every one now 
deserted John, save a few faitliful nobles like William Marshall, 
earl of Pembroke, who believed that they were bound to support 
the king, even when he was a bad one. John's main reliance was 
upon his foreign favourites and mercenary soldiers imported from 
abroad to overawe his kingdom. With such backing it was im- 
possible for John to hold out long against his subjects, and he soon 
yielded as abjectly to his barons as he had formerly surrendered to 
'<^l<^ pope. On June 15, 1215, he met the baronial leaders at a 
meadow on the banks of the Thames, between Windsor and Staines, 
called Eiunnymede. There he sealed the articles of submission 
which the barons had drawn up for his acceptance. 

13. This document is famous as Magna Carta, or the G-reat 
Charter, and is justly regarded as marking the beginnings of 
The Great English liberty. From the conquest to this date the 
Charter, ISTorman kings had reigned as despots. The union of 

• all classes against John now forced the king to agree 

that his authority should be Hmited. The clauses of the charter 
were to some extent modelled on that of Henry i., but there was a 
great difference between a charter granted with the king's goodwill 
and a charter imposed on a reluctant king at the point of the sword. 



-1216.] JOHN LACKLAND I45 

Moreover, tlie charter of 1215 was a miich. fuUer document than 
that of 1100. It contained few novelties, but clearly stated the 
customs of the realm in the days of Henry 11. It promised free- 
dom to the English Church, and especially freedom to chapters to 
elect their bishops. A large number of clauses carefully limited 
the rights of the crown to exact feudal dues from the barons, and 
the barons were similarly required to treat their own tenants 
leniently. London and the towns were to have their liberties 
preserved ; merchants had freedom to trade in times of peace. ~^o 
new aids or taxes were to be levied by the king without the con- 
sent of the great council of barons. Justice was to be denied to 
no man, and no freeman was to be imprisoned or outlawed, save 
according to the judgment of his peers and the law of the land. 

14. John accepted the barons' demands without the least intention 
of keeping his word. His object was to gain time, and, as soon as 
he could, he repudiated his promise. He persuaded „ . _ 

Innocent iii. that the charter was against the interests the war of 
of the Roman Church because it reduced the power of ki^^S and 
the pope's vassal. In consequence of tliis Innocent 
issued a bull declaring the document invalid. John then raised an 
army of foreign mercenaries, and went to war against the barons. 
For once he showed energy and activity. Before long he pressed 
the nobles so hard that they were forced to call in foreign aid. 
They requested Louis of France, who had defeated John at La Roche 
au Moine, to come over and help them and be their king. Louis 
at once accepted their offer, and landed in England. Even with 
his aid the barons had still a hard task before them. The pope 
excommunicated Louis, and few of the clergy dared to support 
him, while many of the officials of the school of 
Henry 11. faithfully rallied round the king. However, jo^n 1216 
on October 19, 1216. John died suddenly in the midst 
of the struggle. He was the worst of English monarchs, and his 
persistent ill fortune was entirely his own fault. It was no wonder 
that men called him, in shame, John Lackland. With him the 
Norman despotism came to an end. It had done its work in 
making England peaceable and united, and was no longer needed. 



CHAPTER VIII 
FEUDAL BRITAIN 

1. The cliief results of the I^oriiian conquest were to stimiilate tlie 
energy of England, to promote its unity, and to break down tke 
wall of separation tliat had Mtlierto divided it from 
tanee of the ^^^ '^^^^ ^f '^^^ world. In a lesser degree tlie Normans 
Norman exercised a similar influence over tlie non-Englisli 

Xfipftain?'' P^^*^ ^^ *^^ British Islands. Tliey made English- 
speaking Scotland a feudal land as much as England. 
Though their influ-ence was more superficial in Celtic districts, they 
made their power felt in Celtic Scotland, in Wales, and in Ireland. 
Reduced to a common subjection under their restless and masterful 
Norman lords, the Irish and the Welsh, like the English, lost some- 
thing of their ancient freedom, and were for the first tinie brought 
into more than nominal dependence upon an English king. Thus 
the Norman conquest, which finally brought about the union of 
England, did much to prepare the way for the later union of the 
British Isles. While, however, Norman and Englishman were 
amalgamated by the twelfth century into a single people, Celtic 
tribalism and Norman feudalism lay too far asunder to be capable 
of fusion. It resulted from this that Norman influence over 
Celtic lands ever remained what it originally was in England — ^that 
is, the rule of the alien based simply upon military force. For 
that reason it was more superficial than was the case in England. 
Nevertheless, the history of the British Islands would have been 
very different had there not been Norman conquests of Scotland, 
Wales, and Ireland, as well as of England. To all these countries 
aKke the conquest marks the chief turning-point of their history. 

2. We have seen how the Norman kings completed the estab- 
lishment of the feudal system of land tenure in England. In so 
doing, they brought our country into line with the general civi- 
lization of that mediaeval Europe of which England soon became 
one of the important powers. Henceforward the isolation of 
Anglo-Saxon England was replaced by openness to new ideas, and 
146 



I2i6.] FEUDAL BRITAIN 1 47 

constant participation in all the great moyements of tlie time. 
While Anglo-Saxon England lived its life apart in sluggish. 
IndifEerence to the world beyond, Norman and Angevin 
England stood in the forefront of every great Euro- dealfngs*^ 
j)9an movement. Its kings were as powerful across between 
the sea as in Britain, Its feudal institutions were Britain and 
those of the western world. Its knights lived the same nent. 
life and fought after the same fashion as the warriors 
of the continent. Englishmen took their full share in the crusades 
and the other international movements of the time. This communion 
of sympathy was even greater in the domain of ideas than in the 
world of action. We shall see tliis in detail when we study the new 
position of the English Church. 

3. The vital fact of the Norman and Angevin periods was the 
permanent establishment of the centraKzed despotism of the king. 
The only real checks to the caprice of the monarch rvyp.ygx 
were the nobles and great ecclesiastics, and even these and the 
had Kttle power to control the king, save by directly Great 
waging war against him. The place of the Witenagemot 

as the council of the nation was now taken by the Great Council, 
which did not differ very greatly from it in constitution or powers. 
It was composed, during the tweKth century, of all the tenants in 
chief of the crown, but in practice only the more important tenants 
were in the habit of attending it. It agreed to new laws and to 
extraordinary taxes ; but, like the Witenagemot, it seems seldom 
or never to have ventured to resist the wishes of a strong king. 
Even more under the monarch's control were the courts composed 
of officials appointed by him, such as the CuHa Regis and the 
Exchequer, of which we have spoken elsewhere. In both of them 
the chief ministers of the crown had seats. Besides the Justiciar, 
the regent in the king's absence, and the prime minister when he 
was in England, the king's chief ministers were the Chancellor, who 
was a sort of secretary, issuing all writs and documents, and the 
Treasurer, who controlled the finances. It was generally thought 
best to give these offices to ecclesiastics, who w^re better educated 
than laymen, and were not able to hand on their powers to their 
families. The offices of state, held by lay lords, such as the military 
dignities of Marshal and Constable, became hereditary. 

4. The local courts of the Shire and Hundred were still con- 
tinued. Though the feudal courts of the great landlords often 
usurped the jurisdiction of the hundred, the shire moot remained 
a strong body, though it also became in practice a court of the 



148 FEUDAL BRITAIN- [io66- 

landlords. The circiiit and jmy system of Henry 11. brong'lit it 
into close relations with the central government, and the kings 

found it very useful as a means of raising money and 
^^ me t ^-^ ascertaining public opinion. The immense revenue- 

of the crown was mainly derived by taxes on land. 
It was collected by the Sheriffs of the shires, who went twice a year 
to the Exchequer at Westminster to present their accounts and 
pay over the money they had raised. They were the chief agents 
of the king in dealing with the local government, and had much 
more power and importance than before the conquest. 

5. G-reat as were the changes brought about by l^orman in- 
fluence, the vast majority of EngKshmen still lived a life not very 
Earls different from that of their ancestors before the 

barons, and conquest. Land remained the chief source of wealth, 
knights. ^^^ nearly everybody depended on agriculture for his 

livelihood. Like the Anglo-Saxon thegns, the Norman nobles 
owed their importance to their being possessors of large landed 
estates. Though the kings looked with suspicion upon the political 
ambitions of the barons, they put no obstacles in the way of the 
accumulation of great estates under a single hand. War, however, 
and the unhealthy conditions of life made the duration of a baronial 
house extremely short. By the beginning of the thirteenth century 
there were few U^Torman houses left which could boast an uninter- 
rupted descent from those who came over with the Conqueror. 
This was particularly the case with the emidoms, whose possessors 
still formed a small and powerful class at the head of the aristocracy. 
Next to them came the greatei' harons, who included all tenants in 
chief important enoug'h to be summoned to the king's council by a 
special writ. By the thirteenth century, these were not more than 
a hundred in number. The lesser harons were the tenants in chief, 
who were called to the king's councils by general writs addressed 
to the sheriff of each county. They ultimately became combined 
with the mesne tenants, to form the lesser nobility, or knighthood, 
which plays in medigeval history the same part as that taken by the 
country gentry of more modern times. Properly, a Tcnight was a 
fully armed and mounted soldier who had been solemnly admitted 
to the use of arms by his older and tried comrades. The greatest 
kings and soldiers were proud to be dubbed knight by some famous 
warrior; but every landowner of a fair-sized estate was, by the 
thirteenth century, compelled by the king to become a knight, so 
that a knight often meant simply a smaller landlord. 

6. The estates of the nobles and gentry were divided into 



12 16.] FEUDAL BRITAIN 1 49 

manors, which, were all much of the same type. Each manor had 
its lord, who controlled all the land and exercised jurisdiction 
in his manorial court over his tenants. Sometimes 
the lord had special rig-hts of jurisdiction, as, for ex- sys®t^j5"°^'^^ 
ample, the trial of criminals. In this case, he also held 
a court-leet, in which these powers were exercised. If the lord were 
a g^reat man, he held many manors scattered all over England, and 
was in consequence seldom in residence. His steward, or repre- 
sentative, then acted on his behaK, while in any case his bailiff 
looked after the details of cultivation and the management of the 
estate. There was probably a hall where the lord could reside 
with his family and servants. The land was divided into two 
parts. First, there was the demesne, or home farm of the lord, 
which was cultivated by his bailiif for him, by the help of the 
villagers, who were compelled to work on their lord's . 

estate for a certain number of days in the year. The 
rest of the manor was divided among the villagers, most of whom 
belonged to the villein class. The villeins were serfs, bound to the 
soil, who could not move from the estate of their lord. In some 
ways they were not badly off. Each had his cottage and little 
patch of ground, from which he could not be turned off so long as 
he performed the services of his lord. Though they had no luxuries, 
the villeins seem to have had in ordinary times plenty of meat, 
bread, and ale, and enough warm woollen clothing to keep out the 
cold. They were, however, exposed to the caprice of their lords, 
and, though not called upon to perform military service, were the 
first to suffer whenever war broke out. Though the Norman 
conquest increased the number of villeins, there was this compen- 
sation — ^that the absolute slavery which was common in early 
England died out during the Norman period. 

7. There was Kttle variety in the cultivation of the soil. The 
ploughs were heavy, and were drawn by several yoke of oxen. 
The old succession of corn-crops and fallow still went 
on. The lands tilled by the tenants were not g-rouped husbandry, 
together in compact holdings, but were scattered in 
long narrow strips all over the manor. Tliis was also the case 
with the lord's demesne. In most other ways the Anglo-Saxon 
system was continued. There was still a large extent of common 
land, and after harvest any tenant could still jjasture his cattle 
on the arable fields. The farmer's object was still to raise enough 
corn and meat to keep himseK and his family through the winter. 
Though trade and markets were becoming more important, there 



150 FEUDAL BRITAIN [1066- 

was little intercourse between various districts. Tke establishment 
of the strong" I^orman despotism greatly added to the happiness 
of the ordinary man, who could tiR his fields and go about his 
business in comparative safety. 

8. Towns and trade received an immense impetus as a result of 
the Norman conquest. Towns not only became bigger and richer ; 

they ceased to be mainly the homes of husbandmen or 

Towns and refusrees in time of war, and henceforth were centres 
tpadB* 

of trade and industry. The merchants of the chief 

towns formed societies called 3£er chant- guilds, and in many places 
the merchant-guild secured a monopoly of trade for its members, 
as well as virtual control of the government of the boroug'h. The 
Norman trader was as restless and energetic as the Norman soldier, 
and since Edward the Confessor's days many Normans had settled 
down in Eng-lish towns, and actively busied themselves in commerce. 
The father of St. Thomas of Canterbury was, for example, a Norman 
who had established himself in London and won a high position for 
himself in the city. After the conquest Jews began to take up 
their abode in the greater English towns, and made much profit for 
themselves as money-lenders. In this business the Jews had a 
practical monopoly, since the law of the Church for- 
bade all Cliristians to lend money on usury. They 
were unpopular, and were often cruelly persecuted. They were 
forced to wear a distinctive dress, and live in a special part of 
the town, called a Jewry. But they generally enjoyed the king's 
protection, because they could afford to pay heavily for it. Gradually 
they obtained special laws, courts, and recognized customs of their 
own. They were much richer than the Christians, and were 
among the first private people who built stone houses to live in. 

9. Even before the conquest London was the most important 
town in England. From Edward the Confessor's time onward, the 
London and court made Westminster its chief centre, and it followed 
othep chief from this that London gradually became a recognized 

capital. It received many liberties by royal charters, of 
which the most important was one issued by Henry i. Its citizens 
took an active part in politics, and their zeal in supporting Stephen 
and in opposing John were especially noteworthy. Under Richard i. 
London obtained the right of choosing its own mayor, and was 
henceforth self-governing in every respect. The country towns 
were contented to obtain from the king charters which extended to 
them privileges which were ah-eady possessed by the Londoners. 
Conspicuous among them were York, the capital of the north; 



-I2i6.] FEUDAL BRITAIN 151 

Exeter, the chief town of the west ; Bristol, the most important 
port after London ; and Norwich, the leading manufacturing city. 
Among the ports, those of the south-east coast were particularly- 
conspicuous. They were called the Cinque Ports, because they were 
originally five in number. They formed a confederation among 
themselves, and showed great activity. When war arose, the ships 
of the Cinque Ports formed a large part of the royal navy. The 
most famous of them v/as Dover, the chief port of passag-e between 
England and the continent. As the Norman power was extended 
over Wales and Ireland, towns grew up for the first time in those 
countries under the protection of the Norman lords. Despite the 
great development of town life, the English were still not very 
energetic in commerce. What foreign trade there was remained in 
the hands of foreigners. It was for that reason that the Great 
Charter laid special stress upon protecting foreign merchants, and 
giving them free access to England in peace time. 

10. Life was still simple, primitive, and hard. Even the king 
and the great nobles had no high standard of comfort. There was 
little money in the countiy, and a great man could 

only support his numerous train of followers by wan- IJ^fng^"^ °^ 
dering ceaselessly from one of his estates to another. 
When the produce of one estate was eaten up, the magnate went 
on to the next, for it was easier for men to move about than 
it was for produce to be carried for long distances. Kings and 
nobles were thus forced to change their abode so often that it was 
never worth while to collect much furniture or make their dwellings 
comfortable. Houses were still mainly built of wood, and the 
castles, erected for military purposes, were cramped and dark places 
to live in. There was much dirt and overcrowding among most 
orders of society, and only the great had any chance of privacy. 
Men huddled together to sleep in the same room in which they 
lived or ate. There were few amusements, and scanty means of 
keeping out the cold of winter, 

11. Despite these disadvantages, the Normans brought in a 
more refined way of living than that which had prevailed before the 
conquest. They cooked their food more delicately, 

and despised the gross feeding and heavy drinking of jjpess. 
the English. They also brought in new methods of 
dress, which were especially exemplified by the profligate dandies 
of William Rufus's court, whose rich mantles, embroidered tunics, 
and long shoes, curling up to a point, were bitterly denounced by 
Anselm and the zealous ecclesiastics. Normans cut their hair short. 



152 FEUDAL BRITAIN [1066- 

and staved their faces, so that to the English they all looked Jike 
priests. Married women wore a wimple and veil, and dressed very 
much as nuns still do. Unmarried women and men went bare- 
headed, thongh in stormy weather travellers would protect them- 
selves by low round hats. Foreign luxuries were more common 
than formerly, and furs were used by the wealthy of both sexes. 
The weapons and armour of warriors long remained similar 
to those used by the U^ormans in the battle of Hastings. By 
the twelfth century horses as well as men-at-arms were protected 
by armour. The kaig-ht's liauberh of chain-mail was supplemented 
by other trappings to protect him better from attack. The helmet, 
hitherto open, save for a nasal, protecting the nose, became an 
elaborate structure, closed by a grating, or visor, with holes for 
the eyes and mouth. Under the helmet was worn a skull-cap of 
steel, covered by a hood of mail, protecting the head and neck. 

12. The towns and villages were still rude collections of wooden 
and mud huts, but g-reat care was taken in the erection of castles, 

churches, and monasteries. The first Norman castles 
casUes" were hastily built structures of wood, raised upon a 

lofty artificial mound of earth, which was surrounded 
by a deep ditch and defended by a thick palisade. Soon stone 
castles began to be erected. These were of two types. In 
both, the defences centred round a great tower, called the heep. 
Sometimes the keep was a high square tower built of solid stone^ 
with walls of enormous thickness, and roofed either with wood or 
by vaults of stone, so that the whole area within its walls served 
for habitation or storage. Sometimes the keep was more lightly 
erected on the top of an artificial mound of earth, which was not 
strong enough to bear the ponderous weight of the former variety. 
This latter species was called the shell-heep, and was often hexagonal 
or polygonal in shape. In this the exterior wall of the tower served 
only as a curtain, and the buildings were roughly erected in wood 
or stone within its area. The White Tower of the Tower of London^ 
and Rochester Castle, are famous instances of the square keep, 
while the keeps of Lincoln and Carisbrooke exemplify the shell-keep. 
In each type of castle there were exterior defences, enclosing a. 
wide area by stone walls, high earthworks, and deep ditches filled 
with water. Later on, the IS'orman builders sometimes erected, 
round, instead of square keeps, as, for example, at Pembroke, or at 
Conisborough, near Doneaster, in Yorkshire, where the huge round 
tower is further strengthened by buttresses, and its interior is 
richly fitted up and adorned. Wherever the ISTormans went they 



-I2i6.] FEUDAL BRITAIN 153 

"built their fortresses, so tliat the march of Wales, even more than 
England, became pre-eminently a land of castles. The famous 
Chateau Gaillard, built by Richard i. in Normandy, was the most 
elaborate castle of its day (see ground plan on page 135), and pre- 
pares the way for the magnificent and complicated fortresses of the 
thirteenth century. 

13. The Norman style of architecture, roughly illustrated by their 
military buildings, attained its richer and more artistic develop- 
ment in the solemn and miglity churches which the 

piety of the new-comers erected in every part of the gj^^!!ltgs 
land. Edward the Confessor's abbey of "Westminster 
shows that this fashion had begun before the conquest. The 
removal of the cathedrals from the country to the great towns, and 
the wonderful development of monastic life which followed the 
conquest, gave many opportunities for erecting Norman churches 
in every part of England. The nave of Durham Cathedral, com- 
pleted by Ranulf Flambard, and the cathedral of Norwich, erected 
by bishop Herbert of Losinga, represent the earlier Norman 
type ; while the naves of the cathedrals of Peterborough and Ely 
illustrate the richer Norman of the tweKth century. Both are 
characterized by the prevalence of the round arch and by massive 
solemnity of proportion, while in the later examples there is much 
barbaric richness of decoration. They belong to the Romanesque 
type of architecture which the Romans bequeathed to all Europe. 

14. The E-omanesque builders were unable to erect vaults of 
stone over large or high buildings. About the middle of the 
twelfth century successful experiments in the art of . 
vaulting large spaces resulted in the Gothic style of nings of 
architecture, which began to replace the Romanesque, Gothic 
The earKest Gothic buildings were erected in France, f^^^ ^ ^^' 
There was no sudden change from the old to the 

newer style. Gothic grew gradually out of the older Romanesque, 
and we can trace, especially in the buildings of Henry ii.'s time, how 
the one style fades into the other. Examples of the transition are 
to be seen in the choir of Canterbury Cathedral, built by a French 
architect soon after the murder of St. Thomas, and in the great 
abbeys erected to accommodate the Cistercian and other new 
orders, conspicuous instances of which are the picturesque ruins of 
Fountains or Kirkstall in Yorkshire. In these round arches, after 
the Norman fashion, are found side by side with the pointed arch 
of the later style. The Gothic vault is largely employed, and the 
general structure is lighter and more masterly than that of the 



154 FEUDAL BRITAIN [1066- 

Norman builders. When tlie G-otMc style had. attained its full 
proportions, the pointed arch replaced the round !N^orman arch. 
The first trnly Grothic building erected jji England was the choir 
of Lincoln Cathedral, built by its bishop,. St. Hugh, at the very 
beginning of the thirteenth century. 

15. "We have already seen that a remarkable development of 
m.onastic life followed the Gorman conq[uest. In the abb^ of 
New monas- B^"^-©? erected on the site of his victory over Harold, 
tie move- the Conq[ueror set a model which his followers faith- 
ments. fully adopted. !N'ew monasteries rose up all over the 

land, and many French houses of reKgion received great estates in 
England. At first the new abbeys all followed the rule of St. 
Benedict. Early in the twelfth century fresh monastic types were 
brought from the continent into Engiand. Conspicuous among 
. these were the Cistercians, or White Monies, who sought 

to save themselves from the temptations of the Bene- 
dictine houses by extreme asceticism of life, by withdrawing from 
the haunts of man and setting up their abbeys in the wilderness, 
and by eschewing all pomp and ornament even in the conduct 
of Divine worship and the building of 'their habitations and 
churches. For this reason the Cistercian monks chose for their 
abodes remote districts, such as the hills of Yorkshire and the 
mountains of Wales. About the same time there came to England 
the Canons Regular, who, while living the life of 
Reg'ulap. monks, strove to do also the work of clerks, and 
busied themselves with teaching and preaching as well 
as with meditation and prayer. Another new monastic type was 
that of the Military Orders, which were set up as the result of the 
Crusades. The chief of these were the knights of the Temple and 
the knights of St. John. These orders lived, when at peace, the 
life of the canons regular, but their special mission 
tary Opdeps. ^^^ ^^ fight the heathen and the infidel, and in par- 
ticular to defend the sepulchre of Christ from the 
assaults of the Mohammedans. In them the two great types of 
the Middle Ages, the warrior and the monk, were curiously com- 
bined. All these new orders took deep root in Engiand, notably 
during the anarchy of Stephen's days, when men, despairing of 
tliis world, were fain to turn to the cloister for refuge. As a result 
of the monastic movement, a great religious revival arose. Even 
more conspicuously important than those in England were the 
monas(fcic and religious movements which followed in the train 
of Norman influence in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. In these 



-I2i6.] FEUDAL BRITAIN 1 55 

lands tlie Norman priests and monks eradicated tiie last traces 
of tlie ancient independence of tlie Celtic clmrciies, and bronght 
in the Roman types of ecclesiastical life, organization, and art, 
for whicL. they had already secured a paramount position in 
England. 

16. The twelfth century saw the best results of the improve- 
ments in government and civilization and the revival of religion 
which followed upon the Norman conquest. The life .p. Twelfth 
of learning and study again became possible. At first Century Re- 

the chief teachers and students came, like Lanfranc and naissance 

s,n(i trie 
Anselm, from the monasteries. Before long, however, beginnings 

the love of knowledge spread to secular clerks, and of Univer- 
even to laymen. Masters or teachers collected round ^^ ^^^* 
them bands of eager students of philosophy, philology, and litera- 
ture. So numerous did these groups of teachers and students 
become that permanent schools grew up at va-rious centres. Before 
long the teachers in each place became an organized society or 
corporation, with special privileges and strong position. These 
organized schools were called Universities, a word which means 
simply a corporation. The most famous university in the west was 
that of Paris, to which students flocked from every part of Europe. 
In the course of the reign of Henry ii. an English university arose 
at Oxford, one of the most important towns of the south midlands. 
It was not, however, ujitil the thirteenth century that the univer- 
sities became fully organized and played a great part in the history 
of thought and learning. As time went on, even the households 
of kings and g'reat nobles became centres of study and intellectual 
interest. Robert of Grloucester, as we have seen, did much for 
historical learning in his day. The court of Henry ii. was a 
famous home of intellectual activity and literary composition. 

17. Latin was still the universal language of scholars, the clergy, 
and statesmen. In it all serious books were written, and all legal 
documents, state papers, and diplomatic correspon- 
dence drawn up. It was the everyday speech of t^pg" itera- 
clergy and scholars, and all lectures at the universities 

were given in it. Most of the best writing set forth by English- 
men was in this tongue, notably the chronicles and histories, which 
during the tweKth century attained a high level of thought and 
style, as is shown by William of Malmesbury, William of New- 
burgh, Roger of Hoveden, and many others. Men read the Latin 
classics eagerly, and based their style upon them, as was notably 
the case with William of Malmesbury. Even a great romancer like 



156 FEUDAL BRITAIN [1066- 

Geoffrey of Monmoutli composed his book in Latin, and gave it 
out to be a serious history. 

18. The English tongue was not much affected in form or 
vocabulary by the Norman conquest. The effect of the coming 
English and ^^ ^^^ ISTorman was, however, that fewer books were 
French written in it. For example, the English Chronicle, 

literatupe. ^i^ich had been kept up since AKred's days in some of 
the great monasteries, was after the concLuest continued at Peter- 
borough only, and ceased even there by tht end of the reign of 
Stephen. Latin was now used where Eng-lish had often been em- 
ployed earlier. English lost even more ground, however, as a spoken 
tongue than as a written language. The N^ormans brought French 
with them, and down to the thirteenth century French continued 
to be the ordinary vernacular s^Deech of the court, the nobles, and 
the mass of the landed classes. The lighter popular literature, 
which was written to amuse lords and ladies, was henceforth largely 
composed in French also. The result was that English became 
the spoken language of peasants and the poor. There was no longer 
a literary standard, such as that which has iJeen set at the West 
Saxon court, and everybody spoke and wrote in the dialect of his 
native district. There were three chief dialects, corresponding 
roughly to the three Anglo-Saxon great kingdoms of Northumbria, 
Mercia, and Wessex. Of these, the southern dialect was the most 
like the old English of the West Saxon court. The northern dialect 
was marked by a certain number of Danish and IJ^orwegian words. 
It was the beginning of the Lowland Scots of a later age, as well as 
of the popular dialects of the north of England. The midland 
dialect is more important to us, because it is the source of the 
standard English which all write and speak nowadays. In aU these 
varieties there was a movement towards the cutting down of cases 
and inflexions, and the simplification of grammatical forms, so that 
the languag-e — now called Middle English — forms a sort of bridge 
between the old English of the Anglo-Saxon and IN'orman days, 
and the modern English which we now use. 



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Books Recommended for the Further Studt of Book IT., 1066- 121G. 

Good detailed accounts of. the historj^ of the whole period can be found in 
H. W. C. Davis' England under the Normans and Angevins^ and in G. B. 
Adams' History of England, 1066-1215 (Longmans' "Political History of 
England," vol. iii.). Stubbs' Constitutional History of England, vol. i. chaps. 
ix. to xiii., contains the most authoritative account of the constitutional 
development of. the period. Some important criticisms and amendments 
of Stubbs are given in C. Petit-Dutaillis Studies Supplementary to Stuhhs, 
i. v.-xii. Useful biographies of important characters are Freeman's 
William the Conque7^or and Mrs. J. R. Green's Henry II., both in Mac- 
millan's "Twelve English Statesmen series." R. W. Church's Life of St. 
Anselm gives a picturesque delineation of the life and times of tlie greatest 
English churchman of the period, and the story of Becket can be read in J. 
Morris' Lfe and Martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket. For general Church history, 
W. R. W. Stephens' History of the English Church, 1066-1272, is useful, and 
Miss Kate Norgate's England under the Angevin Kings and John Lackland are 
valuable from the accession of Henry 11. onwards, and Stubbs' Early Plan- 
tagenets (Longmans' "Epochs of Modern History ") gives a masterly account 
of the Angevin period on a small scale. T. A. Archer's Crusade of Richard I. 
sets forth from translated extracts of contemporary writers a good account of 
the Third Crusade. Miss Mary Bateson's MedlcBval E]igland, 1066-1350, parts 
i, and ii., give an admirable picture of the social life of the period. Barnard's 
Companion to English History (Middle Ages) contains a series of useful 
articles on trade, social life, architecture, warfare, art, learning, etc. Map xvii. 
(England and Wales in 1088) in Oxford Historical Atlas is of importance 
for the study of British historical geography. For Irish history, G. H. 
Orpen's Ireland under the Normans^ or more briefly, A. G. Richey's Short 
Histo7^y of the Irish People : for Welsh history, J, E. Lloyd's History of Wales, 
voL ii. ; and for Scottish history, P. Hume Brown's History of Scotland, i, 
1-130, or Skene's Celtic Scotland. 



BOOK III 

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ENGLISH NATION 

(1216-1399) 

CHAPTER I 

HENRY III. (1216-1272) 

Chief dates : 

1216. Accession of Henry iii. 

1217. Battle of Lincoln. 

1219. Death of William Marshall. 

1232. Fall of Hubert de Burgh. 

1242. Battle of Taillebourg. 

1248. Simon of Montfort, governor of Gascony. 

1258. Provisions of Oxford. 

1259. Treaty of Paris. 

1264. Battle of Lewes. 

1265. Montfort's Parliament and the Battle of Evesham. 
1267. Treaty of Shrewsbury. 

1272. Death of Henry iii. 

1. John's eldest son was only nine years old at his father's death, 

but the dead king's friends at once proclaimed him as Henry in. 

Grualo, the pope's legate, procured for him the ,j,. eonfliet 

support of the Church, and showed that John's sur- between 

render to the pope was a reality by taking on him- William 
. . . Marshall 

self the supreme direction of the kingdom. Gualo ^^^ Louis 

worked in close harmony with the leader of Henry's of France, 

English partisans, William Marshall, an aged baron ^^^^' i^n, 

of unblemished honour, who had married Strongbow's daughter, 

and thus become earl of Pembroke and lord of Strongbow's 

great possessions in Wales and Ireland. Pembroke was appointed 

Ruler of the Khig and Kingdom, a title which was practically 

equivalent to that of regent. The prudent measures taken by 

Gualo and Pembroke soon began to increase the party of the 

159 



l60 HENRY III. [1217- 

little king'. The rebellions barons had taken np arms to secnre 
the privileges contained in the G-reat Charter. Reversing" the policy 
of Innocent iii., Gualo now allowed Pembroke to issue a con- 
firmation of the charter" in Henry's name. This wise step cut the 
ground from nnder the feet of the partisans of Louis. Those who 
had hated John the most had no ill will to the monarchy, and the 
innocent boy on the throne was in nowise responsible for the 
crimes of his father. G-radually the friends of Louis fell away 
from him and declared for Henry. The feeling grew that it was 
a dangerous thing for England to be ruled by a prince who would 
one day be king of France ; but the chief thing that weighed with 
the deserters was their knowledge that the pope and the Church 
had declared against Louis. Even Philip 11. of France dared not 
give any help to his son, because he was afraid of provoking a 
quarrel with the pope. In these circumstances Louis steadily lost 
oTOund. In 1217 Marshall defeated him in a pitched battle in the 
streets of Lincoln. Later on in the year a fleet sailed 
The Battle from Prance, bringing him reinforcements ; but Hubert 
and the ' ^® Burgh, the justiciar, met the French fleet off 
Tpeaty of Sandwich, and utterly destroyed it. It was useless 
1217 for Louis to persevere any longer. In September, 

1217, he made the treaty of Lambeth with William 
Marshall, by which he agreed to leave England. No sooner had 
he gone than Magna Carta was once more reissued, in what was 
substantially its permanent form. Besides this, a Forest Charter 
was also published by the king, which mitigated the severity of 
Henry 11. 's Assize of Woodstock, and laid down the great principle 
that no man was to lose life or limb for breach of the forest 
laws. 

2. William Marshall continued to rule England till his death 
in 1219. He had put an end to the civil war and restored the 
The rule monarchy, but he did not venture to interfere with 

ofWilliam the supremacy of the pope, and was much hampered 

1^/S^^i q ^^ *^^ ^^^^ ^^^* ^® ^^^ obliged to trust the greedy 
and Hubert foreigners who had been the chief supporters of John, 
de Burgh, On his death no new regent was appointed. At first 
• the pope's legate practically acted as regent. The 
legate was now that Pandulf who had received John's submission 
in 1213. His constant interference in the details of government 
provoked much resentment in England, and at last Archbishop 
Langton went to Rome and persuaded the pope to recall him. 
From that time there was no regular papal legate in England, save 



1234.] HENRY III. l6l 

the archbishop of Canterbury himself. Langton henceforward 
did his best to restore peace and prosperity to England, and 
worked well with Hubert de Burgh, the justiciar, who, after 
Pandulf 's recall, was the chief ruler of England. Hubert was a 
capable and vigorous man ; he made it his chief object to restore 
the system of strong rule which had prevailed under Henry ii. 
Many difficulties stood in his way. During the long civil war the 
feudal party had revived, and Hubert, like Henry ii., at his 
accession was obliged to put down adulterine castles and compel 
the nobles to obey the law. An even graver trouble arose from 
John's foreign friends. The chief of these were Peter des Roches, 
a native of Poitou, who was bishop of Winchester, and a mercenary 
soldier, Falkes of Breaute, who had fought John's battles so well 
that the late king had given him enormous territories. In 1224 
Falkes rose in revolt, but Hubert captured and destroyed his chief 
castle at Bedford and drove him into exile. With the fall of 
Falkes the reign of the foreigners was over, and the government 
of England again fell into English hands. Disgusted with his 
rival's success, Peter des Roches left England to go on crusade. 

3. In 1227 the pope declared that Henry was old enough to 
govern his kingdom ; and Langton died in 1228. Hubert continued 
to act as justiciar till 1232 ; but his severity raised up ~, „ ,. „ 

a host of enemies against him, and he gradually lost Hubert, 
the support of the young king. At last Peter des 1232, and 
Roches returned to England, and cleverly broug'ht of Peter 
about his fall. Henry dismissed the faithful Hubert, des Roches, 
and persecuted him with much ingratitude. Peter des v^o-*. 

Roches succeeded Hubert as justiciar, but held power for only 
two years. He gave the chief offices of the state to his friends and 
kinsfolk from Poitou, and soon excited the bitterest indignation 
among the English barons. Richard Marshall, earl of Pembroke, 
the son of the late regent, made himself the spokesman of the 
barons' discontent, and finally headed a revolt against the justiciar. 
Peter maliciously revenged himself by stirring up a rebellion against 
Richard in his Irish estates. Richard was forced to go to Ireland, 
where he was treacherously slain ; but Henry was horrified when 
he heard of the justiciar's deceit, and was easily persuaded by 
Edmund Rich, a saintly scholar who had just become archbishop 
of Canterbury, to drive Peter and his Poitevins from office. 

4. With the faU of the bishop of Winchester, the first period of 
Henry iii.'s reign comes to an end. During all these years Henry 
had been either a minor or under the control of one powerful 

M 



1 62 HENRY III. [1234- 

mind wMch lie could not easily resist. For eighteen years, then, 
the personal authority o£ the king" was small. This circumstance 
Growth of helped to spread the notion of a limited monarchy, 
limited with which was comhined the view that the natural 

monarchy. lielpers and advisers of the crown were the great 
barons who sat in the royal council. We already seem far away 
from the Angevin des])otism. Though the charters were often 
broken in their details, the spirit of them had begun to enter into 
English political life. 

5, With the fall of Peter des Roches, Henry iii. personally 

undertook the government of the country. The king was resolved 

T\.^ «^^ that henceforth he would submit to no master. He 

The per- , . . , . 

sonal rule of would be his own prime minister, holding in his own 

Henry III. hands all the strings of policy, and acting through 
subordinates, whose duty was to carry out their 
master's orders. Under such a system the justiciarship practically 
ceased to exist, for Des Roches's successor, Stephen Segrave, was 
a mere lawyer who never aspired to be chief minister. Before 
long the justiciar had become a simple president of the law courts. 
Unluckily, Henry iii. was not hard-working or possessed of suffi- 
cient strength of will to rule England effectively. He possessed, 
indeed, some noble and many attractive q[ualities ; his private life 
was pure; his piety was sincere; he was well educated and loved 
fair churches, beautiful sculpture, and richly illuminated books. 
Born and brought up in England, he was proud of his English 
ancestors, was devoted to English saints, and gave his children 
English names like Edward and Edmund, Nevertheless, Henry 
showed less sympathy with English ways than many of his foreign 
predecessors. Too feeble to act for himself, too suspicious to trust 
his barons, he leant upon the support of foreign favourites and 
kinsmen. Erom 1234 to 1258 he sought to rule England through 
foreign dependants. The work of Hubert seemed altogether un- 
done when swarm after swarm of aliens came from abroad, and 
obtained place and power beyond their deserts through the weak 
complacency of the king. 

6. The new alien invasion began soon after Henry's marriage in 
_,, ,. 1236 with Eleanor, daughter of the count of Provenca 
invasion. and sister to Margaret, wife of Louis ix., who in 1226 
The Pro- succeeded his father, Louis viii., the sometime invader 
sIvEyardS!^ of England, to the French throne. Eleanor's mother 

was a daughter of the count of Savoy, and her numerous- 
Savoyard uncles, having but a slender endowment in their owoi 



-1258] 



HENRY III. 



163 



mountain land, made tkeir way to England to share King 
Henry's bounty. It soon became known that Henry was willing- 
to welcome any attractive foreign adventurer of high birth, and 
many such flocked to the land of promise. Among them was 
Simon of Montfort, son of a famous Simon of Montfort who had 
been a chief instrument in extending N^orth French and orthodox 
influence over the heretical Alhigenses of southern France, and who 
had won for liimseK by his sword the county of Toulouse, and 
quickly lost it again. From his mother the elder Simon inherited 
a claim of the earldom of Leicester. The younger Simon per- 
suaded his brothers to make over their pretensions to him, and 
went to England to demand the Leicester titles and estates. Henry 
recognized Simon as earl of Leicester, married him to his sister, 
and lavished on him many marks of favour. 

THE PROVENCALS AND SAVOYARDS 

Amadeus, 
count of Savov. 



Beatrice, 

m. Raymond Berengar, 

count of Provence. 



Boniface of Savoy, 

archbishop of 

Canterbury. 



Margaret, 

m. Louis IX., 

king of France 

Philip III. of 
France. 



Eleanor, 
m. Henry iii. 
of England . 

I 
Edward i. 



Other sons and 
daughters. 



Sanchia, 

m. Richard of 

Cornwall, king 

of the Romans. 



Beatrice, 
m. Charles of 
Anjou, king 

of Sicily. 



7. Another foreign element that weighed with increasing force 
on England was the power of the pope. The successors of Inno- 
cent III. pressed still further the exalted claims of their 

TVi A 

predecessor. They declared that it was their right to poj^ans 
appoint their nominees to any bishopric or benefice. 
At their caprice they issued what were called papal provisions, by 
which the rights of electors, or patrons, were put aside in favour 
of the pope's nominee. The result of this was that a swarm of 
Italian and French priests were established by the pope in English 
benefices, and grew rich on the spoils of the English Church with- 
out attempting to do the work of their offices. Besides this, the 
pope claimed the right of taxing the Church at his will. About 
this time papal taxation became more severe on account of a quarrel 
which broke out between Pope Gregory ix. and the Emperor 



1 64 HENRY III. [1234- 

Frederick 11. Frederick 11., the son of Henry vi., had been 
made emperor Tby Innocent iii., after the fall of Otto iv. He 
was now wag'ing deadly war against the papacy, and G-regory 
looked upon the English Church as a sure source of supplies to 
equip armies to fight the emperor. Though Henry had married 
his sister to Frederick 11., and was on friendly terms with liim, he 
dared not resist the pope's demands. Things became worse in 
1237, when the pope sent to England the first legate despatched 
from Rome since the days of Pandulf. This legate, a cardinal 
named Otto, made himself unpopular both by his strictness in 
reforming abuses and by the zeal with which he furthered his 
master's interests. In 1238 he visited Oxford, where a g'reat 
school or university had recently sprung up. An afeay broke out 
between the legate and the scholars, and the latter forced the 
pope's representative to take refuge in a church steeple until the 
king could send soldiers to effect his release. At last Otto went 
back to Rome, leaving very bitter memories behind him. 

8. The gentle Archbishop Edmund did all that he could to save 
the clergy from the exactions of pope and king. Though high- 
Edmund minded and well-meaning, he was not strong enough 
Rich and to grapple with the difficult task before him. In 1240 

Robert \q Jef-t England in disgust, and soon afterwards died 

Grosseteste. . . 

abroad. His reputation for holiness was such that he 

was soon canonized as St. Edmund. His successor at Canterbury 
was a man of very different stamp. The new archbishop was 
Boniface of Savoy, one of the queen's uncles. He owed his office 
entirely to the favour of the king and pope, and made no effort to 
protect the clergy from them. In these circumstances the leader- 
ship of the clergy passed to Robert G-rosseteste, bishop of Lincoln, 
a famous writer, a saintly man, and the most practical reformer of 
Church abuses of his day. Innocent iv., Gregory ix.'s successor, 
made even severer demands on England than his predecessor. In 
1245 he deposed Frederick from the empire, and persecuted him 
relentlessly till his death in 1250. Frederick was the last of the 
great emperors of the Middle Ages, and his fall marked the end 
of the long struggle between papacy and empire, which began 
with the investiture contest between G-regory vii. and Henry iv. 
Grosseteste continued his protest, and even ventured to withstand 
Innocent iv. face to face. Nothing, however, came from his 
complaints. However much the clergy grumbled, Henry gave 
them no help, and they were forced to pay whatever the pope 
exacted. 



'1258.] BJSNRY III. 165 

9. As Henry iii. grew older lie felt the disgrace of his father's 
failure to retain the Angevin Empire abroad. In 1230 he led an 
expedition to recover Poitou, but obtained nothing by Henrys 
his attempt. In 1242 he again went in person to foreign 
prosecute his rights to the Angevin inheritance which ^^ilu^'^s. 
was fast slipping away owing to the growing power of Louis ix. 
The French monarch was a high-minded and conscientious king, as 
wise as he was good, and so universally admired and beloved that 
after his death he was canonized as St. Louis, But he was anxious 
to extend his authority and complete the work of his grandfather, 
Philip II. With this object Louis made one of his brothers count 
of Poitou and of Toulouse, and thus threatened the last hopes of 
Henry in Poitou. But the barons of Poitou were even more afraid 
of the growth of the French power than was the English king, and 
now turned to Henry and besought him to save them from French 
domination. At their head was Hugh of Lusignan, count of 
La Marche, the mighty Poitevin baron, whose rage at John's 
abduction of Isabella of Angouleme had given the signal for the 
conquests of Philip 11. Hugh of La Marche was now Henry in.'s 
step-father, for on John's death Isabella had gone back to France 
and married her old lover. She added her appeals to those of her 
second husband, and Henry, always dutiful to his family, willingly 
listened to his mother's entreaties. But when Henry got to Poitou, 
he found that Hugh and Isabella had no real care for his interests, 
and simply used him as a tool to prosecute their grievances against 
the French king. He learnt how impossible it was to build upon 
Poitevin promises. The army of Louis ix. defeated his troops at 
Taillehourg, near Saintes, and drove him in panic flight to Bordeaux. 
The expedition was an utter failure, and henceforth Louis's brother 
ruled Poitou as he would. On his death Poitou became part of 
the direct domains of the French king. 

10. The chief result, of the expedition was the ruin of the house 
of Lusignan. The numerous children of Hugh and Isabella, 
finding that they had no prospects in France, crossed -phe Poite- 
over the Channel and threw themselves on the bounty vins in 

of their haK-brother. Henry welcomed them warmly, "^ ^^ ' 
and loaded them with grants and presents. He married one of them, 
William of "Valence, to the heiress of the Marshalls, earls of Pem- 
broke, whose house had recently died out in the male line. Another 
brother, Aymer, a violent and incompetent man, became bishop of 
Winchester, Henry's half-sisters found husbands among the richest 
of the earls. Henceforth the Poitevin half-brothers of the king 



l66 HENRY IIL [1246' 

rivalled tlie Savoyard uncles of the queen in. wealth, pride, and 
■unpopularity. 

11. The government of England by Henry and his foreign 
friends was not only espensive and nnpopnlar, but weak and in- 

„,, effective. Though the people paid heavy taxes, good 
Prineipality order was not maintained. Under a feeble king like 
of North Henry, the princes of North Wales became very power- 

es. ^^^ ^^^ extended their power to the south at the 

expense of the lords marcher. Since the days of Griffith ap 
Llewelyn no Welsh prince had been as mighty as Llewelyn ap 
lorwerth. He joined with the barons in wresting Magna Carta 
from John, and took advantag*e of the troubles of Henry's minority 
to push his dominions from the Dovey to Carmarthen Bay. Though 
married to Henry's sister, he was constantly at war with his brother- 
in-law. Under his grandson, Llewelyn ap G-riffith, who became 
prince in 1246, the Welsh principality became even stronger. 

12. Henry's remaining dominions in France were, like Wales, 
slipping away from his control. All that now remained of the 
_. „ inheritance of Eleanor of Aquitaine was Gascony, but 
Montfopt in even in Gascony Henry's power was very small. The 
Gaseony, nobles behaved like independent princes, and great 

1 248-'! 2^2 J- J. ^ o 

towns like Bordeaux were becoming little repubKcs 
which cared nothing for the commands of their duke. Things got 
to such a pass that even Henry saw that something had to be done. 
In 1248 he made his brother-in-law, Simon of Montfort, governor, 
or seneschal, of Gascony, and gave him full power to reduce the 
unruly Gascons to obedience. Simon threw himself into the rude 
task with wonderful ability and energy. He restored order, but 
showed little regard for impartiality or justice. The Gascons 
sent piteous complaints against him to England. Henry listened 
to their murmurs, and gradually withdrew his confidence from 
Simon. Profoundly irritated at this shabby treatment, Simon 
resigned his office in disgust in 1252. Henceforward he became 
Henry's bitter enemy. Returning to England, he put himself 
at the head of the opposition which the king's fatuous government 
had created. 

13. For many years many protests had been raised against 
Henry's misrule, but, for want of competent leaders, nothing had 
come out of these efforts. For a time Henry's young'er brother, 
Richard, earl of Cornwall, had led the baronial opposition; but 
Hichard now married Sanchia of Provence, the queen's younger 
sister, and reconciled himself with the court. The failure of aU 



'1258.] HENRY III. 1 6/ 

attempts to check him encouraged Henry to adopt a more adven- 
turous policy. His children were growing- up, and he wished to 
establish them in life. To his elder son, Edward, he 

made over the earldom of Chester which had recently Yamuna, 

'' king of 
lapsed to the king's hands, aU his lands in Wales, Sicily; and 

and the duchy of Gascony. Edmund, his second Riehard, 

son, was still unprovided for, and Henry eagerly ^he Romans 

grasped at a chance of establishing him in a foreign 

king'dom which the pope now offered. After the death of 

Frederick ii., the popes continued to wage unrelenting war against 

his children. They were particularly anxious to prevent the 

kingdom of Sicily, which Frederick had ruled, remaining united 

with Germany and the empire. Accordingly the pope offered to 

make Edmund king of Sicily, and Henry greedily swallowed the 

tempting bait. Edmund, who was a mere boy, remained in 

England, but Henry allowed the pope to wag*e war in Sicily in 

Edmund's name, and promised to defray the expenses. This 

was not the only foreign kingdom which Henry's kinsfolk 

obtained. In 1257 Richard of Cornwall was elected emperor after 

the death of Frederick ii.'s son. His title was disputed, and 

as he was never crowned by the pope, he was called king of the 

Romans. 

14. Each new adventure of Henry and the pope imposed a fresh 

burden upon Englishmen. The taxes became heavier, and the 

king's misgovernment steadily became worse. Henry's p ,. . 

misrule was the more grievous, since England in other trogression 

ways was full of life and progress. It was the time of and 

the great religious revival which saw the establishment ^^q'^^s 

of the Mendicant Friars, whose two chief orders, the 

Dominicans and the Franciscans, came to England in 1221 and 1224. 

It was a time of remarkable intellectual progress, of the growth of 

the universities, where flourished many famous scholars, philosophers, 

and theologians. It was the time when mediaeval art attained its 

highest development in the growth of Gothic architecture. The 

country was becoming increasingly wealthy through the spread of 

manufactures and commerce, and towns and town life became more 

important than they had ever been before. It was now also that 

English national sentiment was becoming conscious of itseK. In 

every direction there was rapid progress, but political progress was 

stayed by the incompetence of the king and his advisers. But the 

day of reckoning was now at hand. Led by Earl Simon, the barons 

at last knew what they wanted. In 1258 the storm of indignation 



1 68 HENRY III. 1:1258^ 

burst, and drove Henry and Ms favourites from the position wMcli 
tliey had so long misused. 

15. The crisis was hastened by the enormous demands of the 
pope for the prosecution of the war wag-ed for Sicily in Edmund's 
The Mad name. Henry could only satisfy the pope by raising 
Papliament, fresh taxes, and to do this he had to obtain the 
1258. consent of the barons. In a council, or as it was 
now called, a 'parliament, at Westminster, the barons utterly 
refused to give the king any money, and forced him to consent to 
a drastic reform of the government. In June a second parliament 
met at Oxford. Taking advantage of a summons for an expedition 
against the Welsh, the barons came arrayed for war and attended 
by their armed followers. The king's friends called this assembly 
the M.adj Pai'liavtient, but the barons knew very well what they were 
doing. A committee of twenty-four, chosen in equal proportions 
by king and barons, laid before the Oxford parliament an elaborate 
scheme for the future government of the realm. The new con- 
stitution was called the Provisions of Oxford, and readily adopted 
by the barons. By it a standing council of fifteen was estabKshed, 
by whose advice and consent Henry was henceforth to exercise all 
his authority. All aKens were to be expelled from office and new 
ministers were appointed under stringent conditions. To save the 
barons the expense of attending frequent parliaments, a body of 
twelve was appointed to represent the whole nobility. This was to 
meet three times a year and to discuss public affairs with the 
committee of fifteen. 

16. The Provisions of Oxford carried to a still further point the 
idea of limited and constitutional monarchy first expressed in the 
The Pro- Grreat Charter. Every royal power was to remain 
visions of unimpaired, but henceforth it was to be exercised not 
Oxford. ^j ^j^g king in person, but by a committee of the 
barons. The feudal tradition, when each baron's dearest wish was 
to break down the monarchy and reign like a king over his own 
lands, was thus quite forgotten. The scheme was quite effective to 
check the autocracy of the crown. The danger was lest it should 
set up in the place of the Angevin despotism a narrow baronial 
oligarchy, as careless as the king had been of the welfare of the 
country as a whole. There was no time, however, to think of 
future dangers at the moment. Headed by William of Yalence, 
the king's haK-brother, the foreigners steadily resisted the new 
scheme. They were soon overpowered and driven into exile. 
Henry and his eldest son were forced to take oaths to observe the 



-1259.] HENRY III, 1 69 

Provisions. !N"ext year, when King Eicliard came back to England, 
he was not allowed to land until he took the same oath. Thus 
the fifteen triumphed over all opposition. Henceforth they, and 
not Henry, were the real rulers of England. 

17. One result of the baronial victory was the abandonment 
of Henry's ambitious schemes of foreig-n domination. His son 
Edmund renounced his phantom kingdom of Sicily, -pj^e Treaty 
and the pope found a more competent instrument for of Paris, 
his purpose in Charles of Anjou, a younger brother ^^^^" 

of Loiiis IX, Charles, who had married the youngest sister of 
Queen Eleanor, had already won for himself her father's county of 
Provence. In 1265 he established liimseK in Naples and Sicily, 
and was the ancestor of a long line of kings ruling over southern 
Italy under the pope's supremacy. In 1259 Henry went to Paris, 
where he concluded a permanent peace with the king of France. 
By this treatij of Taris he renounced all his claims over Normandy, 
Anjou, and Poitou, retaining' only the Channel Islands, a fragment 
of the Norman duchy, over which the EngKsh kings still ruled 
because they were stronger by sea than the French, Besides this, 
Henry agreed to perform homage to Louis for the duchy of Gascony, 
which remained under its English dukes. Louis was so anxious 
to make peace that he voluntarily handed over to Henry some parts 
of Grascony which were actually in his possession and also paid him 
a considerable sum of money, nominally to equip knights to fight 
on a crusade. This treaty was the first peace made between 
England and France since Philip ii.'s conquest of Normandy. It 
failed, however, to establish j)ermanent friendship between the two 
countries. So long as Gascony remained ruled by dukes who were 
also English kings, real cordiality between them was impossible. 

18. In England the fifteen ruled for some years in Henry's 

name, but they governed in such a selfish and narrow way that 

murmurs, almost as loud as the old outcrv against „, ^ 

The break- 
Henry, arose against them. Earl Simon of Leicester up of parties 

took broader views than most of the barons, but he found and the 

it very difficult to make the other nobles accept his of fhe'^^"^ 

policy. After all he was a newcomer and a foreigner, Barons' 

and with all his greatness he was so masterful and War, 1259- 

overbearing that he was not easy to work with. The 

majority of the barons deserted his leadership for that of Richard of 

Clare, earl of Gloucester, the most powerful of the earls of English 

birth. Gloucester was a much less able man than Simon, and looked 

with suspicion upon his rival. From their disputes arose a division 



I/O HENRY IIL [i259~ 

in tlie "baronial ranks, whicL. gave Henry iii. a good cliance to win 
back power. Henry himself was not clear- sighted enough to make 
the most of his opportunities ; but Edward,, liis eldest son, now a 
grown man, did much to compensate for his father's weakness. 
The king's son pnt himself at the head of a popular royalist party, 
and showed liimseK more disposed to trust the people than 
Gloucester. It was plain that he had no sympathy with Henry's 
past misdeeds, and that under him there would be no dang'er of 
the domination of foreign favourites. In fact, Edward stood 
to the royaKst party as his uncle Leicester stood to the 
baronial oligarchy. Eor a time Edward and Simon worked well 
together, but they were too much like each other to ag*ree long. 
Ultimately Edward proved liimself Simon's most deadly enemy. 
He persuaded many of the barons to desert to the royalist side, 
and in particular won over from the opposition the fierce and 
warlike lords of the Welsh March, of whom, as earl of Chester, he 
was the natural leader. By 1263 the royalist party had become 
so strong that Henry repudiated the Provisions, and shook himself 
free of the control of the fifteen. He persuaded the pope to annul 
the Provisions, and absolve him from the oath which he had taken 
to observe them. This growth of the royaKst power forced the 
barons to unite again, and their reunion was easier since Earl 
Richard of Gloucester died, and his young son, Earl Gilbert of 
Gloucester, was a devoted follower of Montfort. Open hostilities 
broke out between the king and the barons, which were called the 
Barons'' War. In tliis struggle both parties were so evenly matched 
that neither could obtain a victory over the other. The best way 
out of an impossible situation seemed to be to appeal to the 
arbitration of some impartial outsider. Accordingly, in December, 
1263, the two parties arranged to submit aU disputes between them 
to the judgment of Louis ix. 

THE HOUSE OF LUSIGNAN 

Isabella of Angouleme. 
na. (1) John, King of England. 
(2) Hugh of Lusignan, count 
of La Marche. 

(1) (1) (2M (2) (2) 

III II 

Henry iii. Eichard, William of Valence, Aymer of Other sons 

king of king of m. heiress of the Valence, and daughters 

England. the Eomans. Marshalls, earls bishop of settled or 

of Pembroke. Winchester, married in 



Aymer of Valence, 
earl of Pembroke. 



England. 



-1264] HENRY III. 17 i 

- THE EARLS OF GLOUCESTER 
Henry 1. 

Robert, 
earl of Gloucester, d. 1147. 

William, • 

earl of Gloucester. 



Amicia, Isabella of Gloucester, 

m. Richard of Clare, m. King John. 

Gilbert of Clare, 
earl of Gloucester. 

I 

Richard of Clare, 

earl of Gloucester, d. 1262, 

Gilbert of Clare, 

earl of Gloucester, d. 1295, 

m. Joan, daughter of Edward i. 



Gilbert, Eleanor, Margaret, another 

earl of Gloucester, m. Hugh le Despenser m. Peter of Gaveston. daughter. 
d. 1314. the younger. 

The names in italics are not referred to in the text. 

19. The king of France was the justest of kings ; "but, after all, 
he was a king, and naturally prejudiced in favour of a sovereign 
waging war against his subjects. In January, 1264, .pj^^ failure 
he issued his decision in a document called the Mise of the Mise 
of Amiens, which pronounced the Provisions invalid, of Amiens, 
mainly because the pope had ah'eady condemned them. 
This judgment was too one-sided to be accepted, and the barons, 
headed by Leicester, resolved to continue the war. In taking this 
step Simon deliberately broke his pledged word, but he was not 
more forsworn than the king, who had so solemnly promised to 
abide by the Provisions. Though deserted by many of his 
followers, Simon did not lose heart. The defection of his allies 
gave him almost uncontrolled power over the baronial party, and 
he now showed himself as good a general as he had been a states- 
man. War was renewed, and at first the royalists gained some 
successes. At the head of their victorious troops, Henry and 
Edward marched triumphantly through Kent and Sussex, and at 
last took up their quarters at Lewes, where, on May 14, the decisive 
battle of the campaign was fought. 



1/2 



HENRY III. 



[1264- 



20. The royalist army was iLolding* the town of Lewes, which is 
situated on a sort of peninsula on the rig-ht bank of the river Ouse. 
The Battle Early in the morning", Montf ort's army advanced from 
of Lewes, the north and made their way over the open chalk- 
^^^** downs which encompassed Lewes on three sides, 

Simon's hope was to surprise the royalists in their camp, but they 
obtained information of his approach, and swarmed out of the 
town to meet him. The baronial troops moved in two g-reat 
divisions along two spurs of the downs, separated by a valley. 
Their best soldiers were on the rig-ht wing', and their left wing- 
largely consisted of the Londoners, who were ardent partisans of 
Earl Simon. Edward, who commanded the right wing of the 
royalists, attacked the Londoners with such fury that he drove 




Emery Walker sc. 



them in confusion many miles from the field. During his absence, 
however, Montfort with his right wing had captured Lewes town, 
utterly defeated the king's troops, and taken prisoners Henry and 
his brother, the king of the Romans. When Edward returned from 
the pursuit it was too late to renew the conflict. Next day the 
king's son surrendered, so that the barons won a complete triumph. 
21. The victors drew up a new plan for the government of the 
country, called the Jf^se of Lewes. By it the king's power was 
The pule handed over to a committee of nine, and Henry and 

of Earl Edward were forced to swear to observe its provisions. 

1264^1 265 ^^ reality, however, Montfort now governed England. 
His position was much stronger than it had been in 
the early years of the struggle, and for the first time he was able 



-1265.] HENRY III. 173 

to enforce liis policy upon all his party. His position, however, 
was still very difficult. Tlie lords of the Welsh March were still 
in arms for the king, and the pope was Henry's warm partisan. 
Queen Eleanor and her kinsfolk assembled an army on the French 
coast, and waited for an opportunity of invading England. 

22. Montfort saw that the best way of resisting the formidable 
forces opposed to him was to call upon the people as a whole to rally 
round him. With this object he summoned, in -j-^e Parlia- 
January, 1265, a parliament which, unlike the Parlia- ment of 
ment of 1258, was not a mere council of barons. He ^265. 
called upon every shire, city, and borough in England to elect two 
representatives who were to join with the barons and bishops in 
their deliberations. This action of Montfort's has made the 
Parliament of 1265 very famous in our history. It has been called 
the first House of Comiinons, and Montfort has been named the 
creator of the Souse of Commons. Neither of these claims can be 
justified. It was no new thing to call upon the shires to send their 
representatives to treat with the king or his ministers. The policy 
of electing representatives of the shires began when Henry 11. 
instituted the system of grand juries, and sent his justices to trans- 
act business with them. It was only a small step forward when, 
instead of the king's representative dealing with each shire in turn, 
representatives of all the shires were joined together in a single 
assembly, and brought face to face with the king in person. This 
was first done, so far as we know, under John in 1213. Under 
Henry iii. it became a common custom for the king to call tog*ether 
such representatives, or, as they were called, hnights of the shire, 
and to take their advice or listen to their complaints. Moreover, 
when the king wanted to get money from the merchants, or advice 
on matters of trade, he had already more than once summoned 
representatives of the cities and boroughs. ^Nevertheless, Mont- 
fort's Parliament does mark a real advance. It was a new thing 
to join both the shire and borough representatives in a single 
gathering. Moreover, Montfort did not summon this parliament 
merely to raise taxes, and to discuss matters of little importance. 
His object was to take the people into partnership with him, and 
find out their real views as to the government of the country. 
Thus, while the barons of 1258 acted as if none but the magnates 
had any voice in matters of politics, Montfort allowed commons as 
well as lords a voice in high matters of state. Since Magna Carta 
the king's power had been limited. It was the glory of Montfort 
that he was the first man to see that the power of the crown should 



1/4 HENRY III. [1265- 

be controlled, not only by tlie barons and bishops, but also by the 
lesser land-owners, the men of business, and the smaller people as 
well. Nevertheless, Montfort's Parliament was but the expedient 
of the moment. We must wait for the next reign before the rival 
and disciple of Montfort, Edward, the king's son, established the 
popular element on a firm basis. 

23. Earl Simon's rule lasted only a few months. His fierce and 

overbearing temper, and the deep differences of policy between him 

and such of the magnates as still adhered to him, made 
The revolt 
of the permanent co-operation between him and the barons 

Marchers, impossible. Grilbert of Clare was now old enough to 

shake off the fascination which had bound him to 

Simon in earKer years. He quarrelled first with Simon's sons, who 

had all the defects and little of the greatness of their father. Then 

he broke violently with Simon himseK, and raised the standard of 

revolt in his lordship of Grlamorgan. The marchers, whom Simon 

had never been able to subdue, rallied round him, and Simon was 

forced to proceed to the west to wage war against G-loucester and 

his friends. He took with him Henry and Edward, both of whom 

were still practically prisoners. One day, however, Edward, who 

was allowed the diversion of hunting, escaped from his guards and 

joined G-loucester. By this time a strong band of exiles, headed 

by William of Yalence, had landed in South Wales and added their 

forces to those of Edward and Gloucester. Simon strove to create 

a diversion by making a close alliance with Llewelyn of Wales, but 

the Welsh prince gave him little real help. Llewelyn had already 

profited by the civil war to conquer many of the lordships marcher, 

and he would not stop adding to his territories to fight Montfort's 

battles. Before long Montfort was forced to recross the Severn, 

closely followed by Edward and the marchers. On August 4, 

1265, a decisive battle was fought at Evesham in Worcestershire. 

24. Evesham, like Lewes, stands on a peninsula, and is almost 
encircled by a wide curve of the Avon. Simon and his war-worn 
The Battle ^^^^ were resting in the town when Edward occupied 
of Evesham, the narrow neck of land which lies a little to the north 

^^* between the two reaches of the stream. This cut 

off all prospect of escape by land, especially as G-loucester with a 
strong force occupied the village of Bengeworth on the left bank, 
which was connected with Evesham by the only bridge on that 
part of the river. Simon saw that Edward had outgeneralled him, 
yet could not but admire Ms adversary's skill in warfare. " By 
the arm of St. James," he declared, " they come on cunningly ; yet it 



-1267.] 



HENRY III. 



175 



is from me that they have learnt their order of battle. Grod have 
mercy on our souls, for our bodies are the lord Edward's." The 
battle then began, and Montfort's troops, though fighting bravely, 
were overpowered. Montf ort himseK perished in the fight, but his 
memory lived long in the hearts of Englishmen, who worshipped 
him as a saint and martyr, and believed that he had laid down his 




Emeo' WaU^£i sc 



BATTLE OF EVESHAM. 



life for the cause of justice and reKg-ion. The best of Simon's 
work survived the battle of Evesham. His victorious nephew 
learnt well the lesson of his career, and the true success of the 
martyred earl was the future Edward i. 

25. Edward now restored his father to liberty and the throne. 
There was a greedy scramble for the spoils of victory, and the 
greatest of these, the forfeited earldom of Leicester, The Royalist 
went to Edmund, the king's younger son, who soon Restoration, 
also became earl of Lancaster and Derby. But the 1265-1267. 
victors' resolve to deprive their beaten foes of their estates drove 
the vanquished into fresh revolts, and for two years there was still 
much fighting in England. At last the chief rebels were forced to 
defend themselves behind the strong walls of Kenilworth Castle. 
There were two parties among the royalists ; one, led by the cruel 
marchers, thought of nothing but spoils and vengeance, while the 



176 



HENRY III, 



[1267- 



otlier, headed by Grloncester, recommended moderation in victory. 
At first Edward favoured tlie former, but lie now adopted 
Gloucester's milder policy, and drew up tbe Dictwm de Kenilworth, 
wMcli allowed rebels to redeem their estates by paying a fine 
assessed at five years' value of their lands. In 1266 the defenders 
of Kenilworth were admitted to these terms, and in 1267 a few 
desperate partisans, who still held their own amidst the fens of the 
Isle of Ely, were also forced into submission, 

26. England was thus restored to peace, but Llewelyn ap G-riffith 
still remained under arms. Even Edward was now tired of fighting, 
The Treaty ^^^ ^ September, 1267, gave Llewelyn liberal terms 
of Shrews- of peace in the treaty of Shrewsbury. By it Llewelyn 
bury, 1267. ^^^ recognized as prince of Wales, and as overlord of 
all the Welsh magnates^ Many of his conquests were definitely 



^m. 



V/mfA Llewelyn^s lands at hh accessToh 1246. 



Land held by other Welsh Princes in 
1246 and brought more or /ess under 
Llewelyn's control by 1267. 



\xv- -NWN ^'^f^h^i' t<^rids occupied by Llewelyn 
^1^ and assigned to him by the Treaty c 



Shrewsbury 1267. 

I Marcher Lordships remaining out 
Lleuielyn's power in 1267, 




EmeryWalker sc. 



WALES AND THE MARCH, SHEWING THE GROWTH OF THE POWER OF 
LLEWELYN (1246-1267). 



ceded to him, including the four cantreds of the vale of Clwyd, 
over wliich Edward himseK had claims. Alone of Montfort's 
friends, Llewelyn came out of an unsuccessful struggle upon terms 
which are seldom obtained even by a victor in the field. 

27. The rest of Henry iii.'s reign was as peaceful as the middle 
part had been stormy. The old king was practically replaced by 



-1272] HENRY III, 177 

his wise son, and Edward was shrewd enough to rule the land after 
a fashion more in accordance with the ideas of Earl Simon than 
with those of his father. Before long things became jj^g ^^^ pj- 
so quiet that Edward was able to leave England and the reign, 
go on a crusade. Ever since the Third Crusade the 1267-1272. 
Christian kingdom in Palestine had been steadily decaying, and it 
was clear that unless a new holy war were preached, it would soon 
be completely overwhelmed. Louis ix. undertook to lead a crusade 
in person, but instead of going to the Holy Land, he turned his 
arms against Tunis, where he died in 1270. Soon afterwards 
Edward arrived off Tunis, only to find that Louis was dead, and his 
son, Philip iii., had concluded a truce with the Mohammedans. 
Disgusted by what he regarded as treason to Christendom, he made 
his way to Palestine, where he remained till 1272. He was the 
last of the great crusaders, and even his fire and courage could do 
little to uphold the crusading kingdom, which a few years later was 
altogether destroyed. Edward was still away in the East when 
Henry iii. died, in November, 1272. The old king was buried in 
Westminster Abbey, which he had rebuilt in honour of St. Edward, 
his favourite saint. During his lifetime the old Norman despotism 
had faded slowly into the national and constitutional monarchy 
which Simon had begun, and which Simon's conqueror was soon to 

complete. 

4 



CHAPTER II 

EDW^ARD I. (1272-1307) 

Ghief Dates: 

1272. Accession of Edward i. 

1274. Edward's coronation. 

1277. The first Welsh War. 

1279. Statute of Mortmain. 

1282-1283. Conquest of North Wales. 

1285. Statutes Be Bonis and of Winchester. 

1290. Statute Quia Emptores. 

1292. John Balliol, king of Scots. 

1295. The Model Parliament. 

1296. First conquest of Scotland. 

1297. Confirmatio Cartarum. 

1298. Battle of Falkirk. 

1303-1304. Completion of second conquest of Scotland, 

1306. Revolt of Robert Bruce. 

1307. Death of Edward i. 

1. Edwaed I. was tKirty-tliree years old wlien lie became king", and 
tlie "broad lines of Ms policy had already been formed in the rude 
Charaetep school of the Barons' War. He was wise enough to 
and policy profit by his experience, and his love of strong* rule 
o war . ^^^ efficiency, his courag-e, energy, and honesty stand 
in strong- contrast to the weakness and incompetence of his father. 
Edward loved power too much to part with it willingly, but he saw 
that if he wished to be a successful ruler, he must make his policy 
popular. Eor this reason he strove to carry out the great idea of 
Earl Simon of taking the people into a sort of partnership with 
him. The result was that his people trusted and followed him. 
Edward found that he could thus get more of his own way than by 
constantly wrangling with his subjects. His remarkable personal 
gifts made it easy for him to win respect and love. He was of 
elegant build and lofty stature, an eloquent speaker, a consummate 
swordsman, and a mighty hunter. He was hot-tempered and 
passionate, and when moved to wrath was sometimes hard and 
almost cruel. He committed many deeds of violence in his youth, 
178 



1277.] EDWARD I. 1/9 

but lie learned to curb his impetuous temper, was proud of his 
straightforwardness, and boasted that he always kept his word. 
Yet Edward had a curious narrowness of temper, which made him 
sometimes look at the letter rather than the spirit of his promises. 
An enemy said of him that he called prudence the treachery 
whereby he advanced, and believed that whatever he liked was 
lawful. He was hard-working, clear-headed, and practical. His 
family life was unstained. He was a loyal friend, and was sincerely 
religious. With all his faults he was the greatest of aU his house. 

2. Edward was proclaimed king during his absence. A regency 
was appointed whose chief members were Walter G-rey, archbishop 
of York, and Robert BurneU, a Shropshire clerk, who 

was already the new king's most intimate confidant, ment during 
and did so well that he remained for the rest of his Edward's 
life Edward's chief minister. It kept England in 1272-1274 
such unbroken peace that there was no need for 
Edward to hasten his return. He tarried for more than a year 
in France, and paid a prolonged visit to Gascony. At last, in 
August, 1274, he crossed over to England, and was crowned king*. 

3. Edward's first trouble came from Wales, where the treaty of 
Shrewsbury had not brought enduring peace. The brilliant success 
of the Welsh arms and diplomacy seems somewhat to -j-j^g gpg^ 
have turned Llewelyn's brain. Visions of a wider Welsh war, 
authority constantly floated before the Welsh prince, 1277. 

and he dreamed of driving the Saxons out of Wales and making 
himself an independent ruler. Accordingly, when the regents of 
the new king required him to take an oath of fealty to Edward, he 
answered them with aU sorts of pretexts and delays. There were 
many other subjects of contention, and both English and Welsk 
complained that the treaty of Shrewsbury had not been properly 
executed. Even after Edward's return Llewelyn continued to 
evade the performance of his feudal duty. At last he declared 
that he dared not leave Wales to perform homage unless Edward 
sent his brother. Earl Edmund of Lancaster, to Wales as a hostage 
for his safety. Llewelyn also strove to stir up dissension in 
Edward's realm by posing as the disciple of Simon of Montfort, 
and in 1275 sought for Montfort's daughter Eleanor as his wife. 
However, on her way to Wales Eleanor was captui*ed by Edward's 
sailors, and kept in. restraint at court. Edward at last lost all 
patience, and in 1277 led an army to North Wales, blockaded 
Llewelyn in Snowdon, and forced him to make his submission by 
the treaty of Conway. This treaty deprived Llewelyn of aU that 



l8o EDWARD I. [1277- 

lie liad won at Shrewsbury, and reduced hini to the position of a 
petty North Welsh chieftain, strictly dependent on his English 
overlord. Next year he was allowed to marry Eleanor of Montf ort ; 
Edward was not inclined to treat him severely if he accepted his 
position of dependence. 

4. For the next few years Edward strove with all his might to 
estahKsh English law in the districts ceded to him by Llewelyn. 
Renewed -^^^ ^^^ attitude was unsympathetic to the Welsh, and 
Welsh his agents were often brutally harsh. A loud outcry 

troubles, against the king's rule arose from his new subjects, and 
especially from those of the four cantreds of the vale of 
Clwyd. They called upon Llewelyn to help them, and Llewelyn's 
brother David, who in 1277 had been on Edward's side, reconciled 
himseK with his brother. A revolt of the four cantreds broke out 
suddenly in the spring of 1282. Llewelyn and David gave active 
assistance to the rebels, and almost simultaneously another rising 
took place in South Wales. 

GENEALOGY OF THE LAST WELSH PRINCES 

Owen, 
prince of North Wales under Henry 11. 

lorwerth. 

I 

Llewelyn, 

d. 1240, m. (2) daughter of John. 

! 
\__ (V 



Griffith. David, 

I d. 1246. 

I ^ j 

Llewelyn, David, Roderick. 

d, 1282. d.l283. | 

TTiomas. 

I 

Sir Owen of Wales 

(time of Edward iii.). 

(The names in italics are not referred to in text ; Welsh princes 
in small capitals.) 

5- Edward led a second expedition against Llewelyn in the 
summer of 1282. Again the rebel prince was shut up in Snowdon, 
but he managed to break his way through the English troops and 
excite a fresh revolt on the upper Wye, where he was slain on 
December 11, at the battle of Orewyn Bridge. David, now prince 
of Wales, held his own in the mountains for another year ; but at 



-1284.] 



EDWARD I. 



181 



last he was tracked and captured. In October, 1283, he was 

executed as a traitor at Slirewsbury, This was the 

end of the native principality of "Wales. It is often quest of the 

called the conquest of Wales, but it was in reality Prinei- 

only the conquest of Llewelyn's principality. The ?282-i283 

marches of Wales remained under their feudal lords 

until the sixteenth century. 

6. In 1284 Edward drew up the Statute of Wales. He declared 



Af^ 




Milford 
Haven 



,armarUien '. x-s^-- 



I 



f 



V, 



I \The smaller marcher lordships 

WMMInglish shire ground 
Modern boundary between England & Wales - 



mMMhe Principality 
illllljThe Palatine counties 



WALES AND THE 3IARCH BETWEEN THE CONQUEST UNDER EDWARD I. 
AND THE union' UNDER HENRY VIII. 



that the principality of Wales, hitherto feudally subject to him, 
was henceforward to be directly ruled by him, and drew up a 
scheme for its future government. He divided it into five counties 
— Anglesey, Carnarvon, Merioneth, Cardigan, and Carmarthen 



1 82 EDWARD I. [1275- 

— and added a new coiinty> Flintsliire, to the earldom of Chester, 
wliicli was now permanently in tlie king's hands. In each of the 
The Settle- ^'^^ shires the English system of local government was 
ment of the set up, though such Welsh laws as Edward thought 
Prinei- reasonable were allowed to continue. In all the details 

' * of the settlement Edward strove to deal fairly with 
the Welsh, though he never understood them well enough to 
respect their feelings. To secure his conquest Edward surrounded 
Snowdon with a ring of fortresses, which still, in their ruin, bear 
witness to the solidity of their work. Kound each castle, such as 
Oarnarvon and Conway, grew up a little English town whose in- 
habitants might help the soldiers of the castle to keep the Welsh in 
„ , , „ check. In one of Edward's new strongholds, that of 
Carnapvon, Carnarvon, his son, the future Edward 11., was born, 
prince of jn 1301 this Edward was made prince bf Wales by his 
' * father. After this it gradually became the fashion to 
create the king's eldest son prince of Wales. That custom has 
lasted down to our own day. 

7. Though Edward was an able soldier, his greatest streng'th 
was as a lawgiver and administrator. Intent as he was on his 
Edward's conquest of the Principality, he was even more busily 
legislation, engaged, during the first half of his reign, in drawing 
1274-1290. ^p ^ remarkable series of new laws and in striving 
with all his might to see them carried out in practice. With aU. 
their importance Edward's laws do not contain very much that is 
novel or original. They owe their fame to the care with which he 
discerned the practical needs of his people and the skill with which 
he engrafted into our permanent constitution the best results of 
the age of unrest and revolution in which he had grown up. His 
reign has been called a period of definition, by which it is meant 
that he made clear points that were formerly doubtful, and selected 
from the rich store of precedents, furnished by the age of the 
Barons' War, the institutions which his keen eye saw were of most 
value to himself and his subjects, and the most likely to bring about 
the permanent welfare of England. Between 1275 and 1290 a 
series of great laws passed in review every branch of both the local 
and central administration, and made their permanent mark in 
English history. In the later years of his reign we shall see the 
same statesmanlike policy of definition applied to the constitution, 
which under his guidance took the form which it has retained ever 
since. 

8. On reaching England Edward made Robert Burnell his 



1284.] EDWARD I. 183 

chancellor, and retained him in that office until his death in 1292. 
The credit for the legislation of the period is to be divided between 
the chancellor and Edward, who rewarded Burnell 
with the bishopric of Bath and Wells. In 1275 the west- ^ °^ 
first of the great laws of the reign was passed in minster I., 
the statute of Westminster the First. It was mainly ^^To. 
aimed at strengthening the king's government and ensuring 
peace ; but it re-enacted many of the best provisions of the Great 
Charter and provided for the freedom of elections to parliament. 
Part of the statute included a permanent grant to Edward and his 
successors of a duty on every sack of wool and every bundle ff 
sheepskins and leather sent out of the country. This 
was called the Old and Great Custom. It was hence- The Great 
forth an important source of revenue, and it was a proof 
of the growing wealth and prosperity of the country that the kings 
were able in the future to derive a large portion of their income 
from a tax on trade. 

9. In 1278 Edward passed the statute of Gloucester, which 
ordered an inquiry into all law courts and jurisdictions held by 
the feudal barons, and sought to limit their number. jYie Statute 
Commissioners went through the country to every of Glouces- 
franchise, and demanded by what warranty the holder ,' 

of it exercised his right. For this reason the letters issued by 
Edward's commission were called writs of quo warranto. Edward's 
object was to break down the power of the nobles, and make every 
court depend on the crown. But his barons bitterly resented his 
action as an attack upon their privileges. It was said that when 
the commissioners asked Earl Warenne by what right he held 
his courts, the earl bared his sword and haughtily declared that 
this weapon was his authority. " My ancestors came over with the 
Conqueror," said Warenne, " and won their lands with their sword, 
and with the same sword will I defend them against all who wish 
to take them from me." These fierce words voiced the opinion of 
the barons, and Edward was wise enough not to force them to 
extremities. He suffered many franchises to remain that he would 
gladly have abolished ; but he took care to create no fresh ones, and 
saw that all the lords were thoroughly obedient to him. 

10. In 1279 Edward passed the statute of Mortmain. Lands 
which went to the Church were said to have fallen xhe Statute 
into the dead hand, or in Latin, in mortua manu, of Mort- 
and the statute forbade any further grants of lands ™^^"' ^^'^^' 
to the Church without the king's leave. Edward's motive 



1 84 EDWARD I. [1284- 

was partly to prevent an increase of the wealth and power of 
the Church, and partly to prevent more lands falling- to clerical 
owners, who were not so well ahle to fig-lit his battles as the lay 
barons. His action was resented by the stricter churchmen, and 
in particular by the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop 
at the time was John Peckham, a Franciscan friar, and a very 
busy, well-meaning-, and active man, who was so eager for 
the rights of the Church that he was constantly causing great 
irritation to Edward by his claims. More than once there seemed 
to be a good chance of a conflict between Edward and Peckham 
breaking out, such as had raged between Henry 11. and Arch- 
bishop Thomas. But Edward's prudence and Peckham's fear of 
Ills sovereign continued to keep matters at peace. On the whole, how- 
_. ever, the advantage was with the king, «who would not 

specte give up the statute of Mortmain, and who in 1285 

Agatis, passed a law called Circwmsjpecte Agatis (act cautiously), 

by which he forced the Church courts to confine them- 
selves to business that was strictly ecclesiastical, and not to en- 
croach upon the jurisdiction of the law courts of the crown. Yet, 
powerful as he was, Edward could not prevent the popes nomi- 
nating whom they would to great places in the English Church. 
Peckham himseK had been appointed by papal provision, and 
Edward could never persuade the pope to allow the Chancellor 
Burnell a richer bishopric than his see of Bath and Wells. Edward 
was, however, strong* enough to put a practical end to the pope's 
exercising any rights as overlord of England by virtue of King 
John's submission in 1213. He refused to pay the tribute John 
had promised, and the popes were wise enough not to press for it. 

11. In 1285 Edward passed two famous laws, called the statute 
of Westminster the Second and the statute of Winchester. The 

former made important changes in the land laws. One 
West ^^ ^^^ clauses was called De Bonis Gonditionalibus — that 

minster II. is, " concerning gifts on condition." Its effect was 
^^^ to make it easier for a landholder to entail, or settle, his 

1285. ' I'aji^ upon a particular line of his descendants for ever. 

In practice, however, this custom of tying up lands 
from generation to generation was found to work badly, and the 
judges interpreted Edward's law in such a fashion that it lost its 
worst sting. It had, however, some effect towards creating the 
English custom of settling lands strictly on the eldest son, which 
has proved more profitable to a few great houses than to the king 
or country. The statute of Winchester aimed at putting down riots 



-I290.] EDWARD I. 1 85 

and violence by making- each Hundred responsible for all breaches 
cf the peace within its limits, and by providing for the proper 
arming- and calling- out of the fyrd, or, as it soon became called, the 
militia. It was in a sense a new version of Henry ii.'s Assize of 
Arms brought up to date. 

12. The last great law of the reign was the statute of West- 
minster the Third, passed in 1290, and often called from its opening 
words, Quia Emjptores. It allowed any landholder to „ , 

sell his land if he wished it, but enacted that the West- 
buver should not be the vassal of the man of whom minster III., 

*• ^ 1290 

he had acquired the land, but stand in the same 
relation to the lord of the seller as the seller had stood himself. 
The effect of this was, in the long run, to bring most landholders 
under the direct lordship of the crown, and so still further to 
weaken the position of the barons. 

13. Despite Edward's new laws, the government -^as only 

properly carried on when the king was himself in England. 

Between 1286 and 1289 foreign troubles carried both 

Edward and Burnell to Gascony. During their '^y^^]^ pf 

tn6 ludsres 
absence the judges sold verdicts for money, and the i289, and ' 

ministers were so corrupt and oppressive that Edward, expulsion of 
on his return, appointed a special commission to hear ^ ngn ^^^' 
the numerous complaints brought against them by his 
subjects. All the judges but four were heavily fined and dismissed 
from office. Soon after this stern act, Edward issued orders that 
all Jews should be expelled from England. The Jews had come 
to England about the time of the Norman conquest, and had 
shown such skill in business as to make much money for them- 
selves. They were unpopular as foreigners and as unbeKevers, 
and also because they were in the habit of lending money at high 
rates of interest. They were, however, favoured by the kings, and 
were glad to pay highly for the royal protection. Grradually, how- 
ever, the feeling against them became very bitter. Edward was 
brought over by it to withdraw his support from them. In 1290 
he drove them from the land altogether. 

14. In 1286 Alexander iii. king of Scots died, the last male 
rei)resentative of the old line of Scottish monarchs. With him 
ended a long and prosperous period for Scotland, c ♦! d 
during which the various nations wliich were ruled under 

by the Scots king were gradually becoming blended Alexander 

together into a single people. The elements which 

made up the Scottish kingdom were even more various than those 



lS6 ■ EDWARD I. [1286. 

wMcli were l^roiiglit together in Edward's realm. Tlie original 
Scots were the Celtic-speaking Highlanders, who dwelt amongst 
the mountains of the north and west. Their territory did not, 
however, extend further south than the Clyde and the Forth, 
which were the original southern limits of the Scottish kingdom. 
But we have seen how by the conquest of Strathclyde, or 
Cumhria, a Welsh population in the south-west of the modern 
realm was brought ujider the rule of the Scottish king, so that 
his rule extended over the Clyde to the Solway and the Esk. We 
have also seen how from the cession of the English district of 
Lothian, originally the northern part of !Northumbria, the 
domiriions of the Scottish king had been extended towards the 
south-east from the Forth to the Tweed. To these new districts 
and new peoples brought under his sway must be adied the Danes 
and Norsemen, who had largely displaced the Celtic inhabitants 
in the western and northern islands and in the extreme north, 
and the Norman nobles who had become the chief landed 
proprietors since the twelfth century. By this time the 
Welsh, the Normans, the English, and the Danes were sufficiently 
united with the Celts for all to call themselves Scots. The most 
important and populous part of the country was in the south or 
Lowlands, which spoke a form of the old speech of Northumbria, 
which was soon to be called the Scots tongue. The original Scots 
were henceforth called Highlanders, and their language more often 
called Gaelic than Scots. The Highlanders were very like their 
near kinsmen the Irish, and were still for many centuries to be 
governed after the old Celtic fashion, by which each tribe was 
practically ruled by its clan chieftain. On the other hand, English 
and Norman influence had made most of the Lowlanders almost 
Englishmen. The Welsh of the south-west were rapidly losing 
their old nationality and becoming English in speech and 
institutions. The Danes of the north, cut odffi from their kinsfolk 
in Scandinavia, since the Norse invasions had come to an end, were 
also becoming Anglicized. Up the east coast English influence 
gradually penetrated over the Forth and Tay, or to the low and 
fertile region between the mountains and the sea, far beyond 
Aberdeen, and almost up to Inverness. The result was that 
English-speaking Scotland was become very extensive. But all 
the various races dwelling in Scotland were ruled by one king, and 
were becoming equally proud of the name of Scot. For a century 
their rulers had lived on good terms with the English monarchs, 
but this happy period now ended. 



■1289.] 



EDWARD I. 



187 



GEXEALOGY OF THE EARLY SCOTTISH KINGS^ SHOWING THE 
CHIEF CLAIMANTS IN 1290 

Malcot.m Canmoee, 
d. 1093, m. St. Margaret, sister to Edgar ^EtheliBg. 



David i., 
1124-1153. 

I 

Henry., 

earl of Huntingdon. 



Matilda, 
m. Henry i. 



William the Lion, 
1165-1214. 

Alexander ii., 
1214-1249. 

I 

Alexander hi., 

1249-1286. 

Margaret, 
m. Eric of Norway. 

I 
Margaret, 

the Maid of Norway, 
d. 1290. 



David, 
earl of Huntingdon. 



Margaret, 
n. Alan of Galloway, 

Devorffilla, 
m. John Balliol. 

I 

John Balliol, 

king of Scots, 

1292-1296. 

Edward Balliol, 
nominal king of 
Scots, 1332-1338. 



Isabella, 
m. Rohert Bruce. 

I 
Robert Bruce 
the claimant. 

I 
Robert Bruce, 
earl of Carrick. 

Robert 1. Bruce, 

king of Scots, 
1306-1329. 



David 11. Bruce. 
1329-1371. 



Margaret, 

m. Walter Stewart 

of Scotland, from 

whom the Stewarts 

are descended. 



(Scottish kings in small capitals ; names in italics not mentioned in text.) 



15. Alexander iii.'s nearest lieir was Margaret, liis daughter's 
daughter, a young girl, called the Maid of Norway, because her 
father was Eric, king of that country. Proclaimed xhe Maid 
queen of Scots on Alexander's death, she remained of Norway, 
in Norway under her father's care, while her realm 1286-1290. 
was ruled by a regency, which found it hard to keep the country 
in good order. Edward, who watched Scottish affaii-s carefully, 
saw in a female reign the best prospects of extending his power 
over the north. He proposed that his eldest surviving son, 
Edward of Carnarvon, should marry the little queen, and thus 
bring about the union of the two lands. On his pledging himself 



1 88 EDWARD I. [1290- 

that the two kingdoms should each retain their own laws and 
customs even if the marriage resulted in their being joined under 
a common sovereign, the Scots cheerfully accepted his plan. In 
1290 the treaty of Brigham was signed embodying these conditions. 
It was the wisest scheme that could be devised for bringing about 
the peaceful unity of Britain. Unluckily, the Maid of !N^orway died 
in the course of the same year on her journey from !N^orway to 
Scotland. 

16. A swarm of claimants now arose to the Scottish throne. 
As none had a clear title, and several had eager supporters, it looked 

as if the sword alone would settle the question of the 

, . succession. The Scots were alarmed at the prospect 

to the of a long and bloody civil war, and resolved to get out 

Scottish of the diflS.cxilty by calling* on Edward to decide which of 

Succession «/ «/ 

1290-1292.' ^^® candidates had the best right. Edward willingly 
agreed to undertake this course. He required, how- 
ever, that all the Scottish barons and all the claimants should take 
an oath of fealty to him as overlord of Scotland before he began 
to examine the question. He gladly welcomed so good an oppor- 
tunity of settling the relations of the two kingdoms which had 
remained somewhat doubtful since Richard i. remitted to William 
the Lion the hard conditions of the treaty of Ealaise. Though 
every subsequent Scottish king had done homage to the English 
king, yet each of them possessed large estates in England, and it 
was not always clear whether their submission was for their English 
estates or for the Scottish throne. As Scotland grew stronger her 
kings became more unwilling to acknowledge their subjection to a 
foreign king, and the good understanding that had prevailed for so 
long between them and their southern neighbours had made the 
English kings see no reason in pressing their claim. However, 
circumstances had now changed. If Edward did not arbitrate, 
there was the certainty of Scotland falling into terrible confusion. 
The claimants, in their anxiety to curry favour with Edward, were 
the first to submit. The chief nobles followed, and Edward there- 
upon undertook to try the great suit for the succession. 

17. The pleas were examined by 104 judges, of whom 24 were 
chosen by Edward and 40 by each of the two claimants whose 
Accession ^ig'li'ts seemed the nearest. These were John Balliol, 
of John lord of Galloway, and Robert Bruce, lord of Annan- 
f292°^' dale. Both of these were descended on the female side 

from David, earl of Huntingdon, Balliol being the 
grandson of his eldest daughter, Margaret, and Bruce the son of 



-1293.] EDWARD I, 1 89 

liis second daug'hter, Isabella. Balliors claim was based upon bis 
representing" the elder branch, while Bruce's title rested on the fact 
that he was a generation nearer Earl David, The judges went into 
the case with great care and impartiaUty, and finally adjudged 
the crown to Balliol. The decision was announced on November 
30, 1292, at Berwick-on-Tweed, then a Scottish town. Balliol at 
once did homage to Edward, and was crowned king of Scots. The 
question seemed peaceably settled, and Edward won great reputa- 
tion for justice in his conduct of the case. 

18. Fresh trouble at once fell upon Edward ; this time from 
France. All through his reign there had been constant bickering 
between Edward and the French kings. There were England 
great difficulties" in carrying out the treaty of 1259, and France, 
and the irritation caused to the French by Edward's 1259-1293. 
position in Gascony was increased when his queen, Eleanor of 
Castile, inherited through her mother the county of Ponthieu on 
the lower Somme, so that Edward's position in France was thereby 
strengthened. All through the reign of Philip iii., who succeeded 
his father St. Louis in 1270, the relations of the two countries were 
strained ; but in 1279 both kings ag'reed to make the treaty of 
Amiens, by which Edward's position in Gascony was improved and 
his wife put in possession of Ponthieu. Philip iv., who became king 
of France in 1285, was a stronger king than his father, and was 
eager to undermine Edward's hold over the French fiefs, by pushing 
his power as suzerain to the uttermost. Matters were made worse 
by quarrels between English and French seamen, which grew so 
bitter that the French hang'ed some English mariners to the yard- 
arms of their ships, with dogs hung up beside them, " as if they made 
no difference," said an indignant chronicler, " between a dog and 
an Englishman." This so enraged the English shipmen that in 
1293 they challenged the French to fight a pitched battle, in which 
the latter were defeated with great slaughter. The beaten sailors 
besieged Philip iv. with their complaints, and Philip summoned 
Edward to his court at Paris to answer for the behaviour of his 
subjects. Edward sent his brother Edmund, earl of Lancaster, as his 
agent, but Edmund was too simple to be a good negotiator. Philip 
persuaded him to give up Gascony to him just as a form, and on 
condition of its being soon restored. But when the time of restitu- 
tion came, Philip's agents kept a tight hold over the whole of the 
duchy. Edward, seeing that his brother had been tricked, angrily 
broke off negotiations, and went to war with the French. 

19. Philip IV. prepared to invade England, and sought to stir 



1 90 



EDWARD 7. 



[1293- 



ap Edward's enemies to make common cause ag-ainst him. At 
Frencli instigation tlie Welsh rose in revolt, and forced Edward to 
divert to tlieir subjection an army collected to recover Gascony. It 




e n e 



EmeiyWallcer so. 



Boundary of Lands nominally allowed to Henry III. in 1259- 

Lands secured by Edujord I. in 7279 . ~._ ,._ 

Lands surrendered by Edward I. In 1279 ^ 



ENGLISH king's DOMINIONS IN FRANCE IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 

was only after hard fighting, in the course of which Edward 
himseK ran great personal risk, that the "Welsh rebellion was put 
down. Then Philip stirred up an even more effective enemy to 



-1295.] EDWARD L I9I 

Edward in Scotland, wliere things had "been going- "badly since Jolin 
Balliol's succession/ Now that Edward's anthoritv over Scotland 
had been recognized, Scotsmen, beaten in the local jhe French 
law courts, appealed to Edward's courts and asked and Scottish 
him to do them justice. It was a regular thing ^^I^\c,Q.tL 
for a suzerain to receive appeals from his vassal's 
courts, and Edward had suffered much from the way in which 
Philip lY. of France had encouraged his vassals in Gascony to 
take their appeals to Paris. He saw no harm, therefore, in allowing 
the Scots to come to his court, and was probably surprised when 
the Scots nobles grew indignant at the practice. But there had 
been no precedents for such appeals from Scotland to England in 
the past, and the Scots declared that they would allow Edward no 
such power. As John BaUiol seemed weak and hesitating, the 
nobles deprived him of nearly aU his authority, and entrusted it to 
a committee of twelve, like the council of fifteen of the Provisions 
of Oxford. The new government broke off aE. relations with 
Edward, and concluded a close alliance with the French. 

20. Edward met this combination of enemies by forming an 
alKance with the emperor, the count of Flanders, and other friends 
of England abroad. But he chiefly relied upon the j j^g Model 
good will of his own subjects, and the step he now Parliament 
took to win his people to his side was ever memorable 1295. 
in the history of the growth of our constitution. Already on 
many occasions he had summoned representative parliaments like 
Montfort's famous assembly of 1265. Thus in 1275 a parKament 
met which formed an almost exact precedent for the full parliament 
which Edward gathered together in 1295. To this he did not merely 
convoke the earls and barons, the bishops and abbots. Beside them 
came two knights from every shire, and two citizens and burgesses 
from every city and borough. A new element was also introduced in 
the appearance of representatives of the lower clergy, in the persons 
of deans and archdeacons, one proctor, or representative, of every 
cathedral chapter, and two proctors for the parish clergy of every 
bishopric. Thus each of the three estates, or class divisions, into 
which society was then diyided — the barons, the clergy, and the 
commons — had fevery chance of making their wishes felt. Later 
times have called the 1295* parliament the Model ParUament, 
because it, even more than those of 1265 and 1275, became the 
type upon which all later parliaments were based. Its assembly 
is the more important since Edward deliberately called it as 
a means of taking his people into partnershij) in a great crisis. 



192 EDWARD I. C1295- 

" What toTiolies all," said lie, in Ms letters, or writs, of summons, 
" should be approved of all. It is also very clear tliat common 
dangers should be met by Ineasures agreed upon in common." It 
is from this moment that the parliamentary constitution of England 
was completed. What with Simon of Montfort was the expedient 
of a moment, became henceforth with Edward i. a permanent 
principle of poKcy. 

21. Edward's parliament voted large sums of money which 
enabled him to crush the Welsh revolt, ward off any prospect of 
The eon invasion, and send an army to win back Gascony. But 
quest of it was evident that Philip would not be beaten until the 
Scotland, Scots had been taught to respect the power of Edward. 

Accordingly, in 1296 Edward led an army into Scotland, 
and resolved to punish John Balliol as he had formerly punished 
Llewelyn of Wales. Balliol made a poor resistance, and after a 
very little fighting, surrendered his crown to Edward. The sub- 
jection of Scotland was thus apparently effected with infinitely 
greater ease than the conquest of the Principality. Edward 
treated Scotland as he had treated Wales. He declared Scotland 
annexed directly to his crown, and appointed English nobles to 
rule the realm in his name. He wandered throug'h the land 
and received the homage of thousands of Scottish landholders. 
He transferred the sacred stone, seated on which the Scottish 
kings had been wont to be crowned at Scone, to Westminster 
Abbey, where it ultimately became the base of the coronation chair 
of the English king's. After this easy conquest of a kingdom he 
hoped to devote all his resources to the recovery of G-ascony. 

22. ]^ew troubles arose in his own realm, which once more 
forced Edward to postpone his purpose. This time his own clergy 
The clerical ^^^ barons played the game of the enemy. The 
opposition trouble with the clergy began when Robert Winchel- 

il^.*^^T , sea, who had succeeded Peckham as archbishop of 

i\r incfiGlsodi 

Canterbury, refused to allow Edward to raise any 

more taxes from ecclesiastics, on the ground that the pope, Boni- 
face VIII., had issued a bull, called Clericis laicos, which forbade 
the clergy to pay any taxes to secular ^princes. In great disgust 
Edward declared that, if the clergy would not help to support the 
state, the state should not protect them. He declared all the 
clergy outlaws, and announced that he would punish no man who 
did injury to a priest. 

23. It was now the turn of the barons to resist. Edward wished 
to send many of his chief lords to Gascony, while he himseK went 



-1297.3 EDWARD I. 1 93 

to fig-lit ag-ainst Phi'li'x) i^., in Flanders, wliose count was his ally. 
Headed by Humplirey Bohun, earl of Hereford, constable of 
England, and Roger Bigod, earl of Norfolk, marshal .^^ 
of England, a large section of the barons declined baronial 
to go to Gascony unless the king accompanied them, opposition 
In 1297 there was a hot dispute between Edward fojk and 
and the earls at the parliament at Salisbury. " You Hereford, 
shall go to Gascony," said Edward to Norfolk, the ^^^^' 
marshal, " whether I go or not." On the marshal persisting in his 
refusal, the king burst into a passion. " By God, Sir Earl," he 
cried. '' you shall either go or hang." " By the same oath," answered 
Norfolk, '• I will neither go nor hang." The two earls gathered 
an army round them, and made common cause with Winchelsea. 
In great disgust Edward went to Flanders to fight against Philip, 
leaving Ms chief nobles behind him. He could send no real help 
to Gascony. He only raised money to pay his troops by im- 
posing taxes of his own arbitrary will. He seized all the merchants' 
wool and forced them to pay a heavy duty, called the Maletote, or 
evil toll, before he would surrender it. As soon as he was beyond 
sea, the two earls marched to London and easily forced the weak 
regency, of which the boy, Edward of Carnarvon, was the nominal 
bead, to submit to their will. It was now agreed that confirmatio 
a fresh confirmation of Magna Carta and the Charter Cartarum, 
of the Forest should be issued in Edward's name, to ^297- 
which new articles were to be appended by which the king 
promised to renounce the Maletote, and never in the future to raise 
similar aids or taxes save with the c'onsent of parliament. TMs 
Confirmatio Cartarum was sent over to Edward in Flanders, and 
very unwillingly he gave his consent to it. It was an important 
epoch in the growth of our constitution. Though the earls were 
greedy and pedantic, and Winchelsea thought more of the privi- 
leges of the Church than the liberties of the realm, Edward in his 
need had acted as a mere tyrant, and it was necessary that his 
power should be checked. 

24. Terrible news from Scotland showed that the king had 
yielded none too soon. With aU his ambition and violence, 
Edward still wished to rule Scotland well, but many ^j^^ Scottish 
of those who governed that kingdom in his name were rising under 
cruel and greedy men, and the Scots hated English ^^^^^^' 
domination even when it was fair and just. Their 
subjection had been due to the folly of their king and the half- 
heartedness of the chief Scottish nobles, most of whom submitted 



194 EDWARD I. [1297- 

because they possessed estates in England which they did not -wish 
to lose by offending Edward. It was otherwise with the mass of 
the Scots people, who were indignant becanse their national in- 
dependence was destroyed and their country trampled upon by the 
foreigner. Within a few months there were popular risings all over 
the country, and soon an able leader to the insurgents was found 
in Sir William Wallace of Elderslie, not far from Griasgow. In 
1297 Wallace gathered a gallant army round him, and offered battle 
to Earl Warenne, Edward's aged and easy-going governor of 
Scotland. At Stirling Bridge, near the abbey of Cambuskennett, 
Warenne was out-generalled by Wallace and utterly defeated. 
Before the end of the year all Scotland threw off the English 
yoke, and Wallace spread desolation over the English border. 

25. Edward hurried back from Flanders, where he had done 
very little ag'ainst Philip. In 1298 he once more led an army into 
Battle of Scotland, and eng-aged Wallace in battle at FaTkirTc 
Falkirk, on July 22. The English army fought on horseback, 
^^^' after the fashion that had prevailed ever since the 
battle of Hastings, though Edward had learnt from liis Welsh war 
the wisdom of combining archers with the cavalry, so as to wear 
down the foe from a distance. Most of the barons and knig'hts of 
Scotland were holding aloof from Wallace, or were actually on 
Edward's side, so that the Scottish hero had to trust to those 
Scots who were not rich enough to fight on horseback. But 
Wallace had the eye of a good general, and saw that his only chance 
of victory was to keep his troops closely together. He planted his 
infantry, whose chief arm was the pike, in dense squares or circles. 
For a long time the stubborn pikemen resisted the repeated rushes 
of Edward's knights, but the king cleverly broke through their 
ranks by constant flights of arrows ; and then the cavalry rode 
through the gaps and dispersed the Scottish squares with gTeat 
slaughter. Wallace fled to France, and once more it seemed as if 
Scotland were at Edward's feet. 

26. A renewal of Edward's domestic troubles, and the continued 
struggle with Philip iv., destroyed the king's hopes of completing 

the conquest of the north. He soon saw that he could 
reeoneilia- '^^^ fight both France and Scotland at the same time, 
tion with and in 1299 made peace with Philip, and, being now a 
the Church widower, married the French king's sister Margaret 

as a pledge of better relations for the future. Even 
then Philip retained for several years the greater part of Gascony, 
but luckily for Edward, the French king quarrelled with the 



►1304.] EDWARD /, 195 

imperious Pope Boniface viii., and soon found it necessary to buy 
Edward's friendsliip by surrendering liim Gascony. By 1303 
Philip had ruined Boniface and broken do^vvn tbe overwhelming 
power of the papacy. In 1305 a Gascon subject of Edward's 
was chosen pope by Philip iv.'s good wiU, and took the name 
of Clement v. This unworthy pontiff deserted Italy and tarried 
in France, finally taking up his abode at Avignon, on the Rhone, 
and doing complacently the wiD. of the mighty French king. He 
was only less subservient to Edward, and abandoned Archbishop 
Winchelsea to the king's anger. Winchelsea was driven into 
exile, and with his fall Edward became once more master over the 
English Church. Long before that the bull Clericis laicos had 
been given up, and Edward's persecution of Winchelsea had 
a sinister appearance of mere reveng'e. 

27. France was thus conciliated and the clerical opposition 
crushed. While these processes were going on, Edward was also 
breaking down the baronial opposition which had ,^^ 
triumphed over him in 1297. Despite his ag-reement baronial 

to confirm the charters, his troubles with the barons opposition 
went on for several years, and effectively prevented 
the united effort of all England, which alone could complete the 
work began at Falkirk. Edward was very sore at being forced to 
give up so much power, and behaved almost as badly as his father 
had done in regarding the letter rather than the spirit of his con- 
cessions. Disgusted at his narrow spirit, the barons refused to 
follow him to Scotland until he had really carried out his promises. 
In 1300 he was forced to accept another series of additions to the 
charters, contained in a document called Articuli super Cartas, 
which ordered a survey of the forests to be made, in order to check 
the king's encroachments on freemen's rights by extending* the 
boundaries of the forests, within which he had more power than 
over the rest of his realm. Edward resented the attempt to limit 
his authority over the forests with extreme bitterness, and strug'gled 
as long as he could. In 1301 he made a further submission, but 
even after that he induced Clement v. to free him from his oath, 
though, to his credit be it said, he made no use of the papal dis- 
pensation. The long struggle taught him that it was only by 
yielding to his barons that he could subdue Scotland. 

28. It was not until 1303 that Edward was able to throw aU his 
efforts into conquering Scotland. In 1304 he captured Stirling, 
and at last saw Scotland at his feet. Wallace now came back to the 
scene of his former triumphs, but was not able to effect much against 



196 EDWARD I. [1305- 

Edward. He was taken prisoner, and in 1305 "beheaded as a traitor 
at London. Fierce and cruel tLongli he had "been, his courage 
_,. , and daring had made him the idol of his country- 

conquest of nien. When the nobles despaired of freedom, Wal- 
Seotland, lace organized revolt and kept alive the spirit of 
* liberty. The work that he did survived his apparent 
failure. 

29. Edward had drawn up a plan for the government of Scotland, 
under which the land was to be divided into four parts, each of 
The rising which was to be under two justices, one a Scot and 
of Robert the other an Englishman; while the king's nephew, 
Bruce, 1306. j^j^^ ^f Brittany, was to be warden of aU Scotland. 
Bjit the new system had hardly begun when afresh revolt compelled 
Edward to begin the work of conquest all over again. Robert 
Bruce, earl of Carrick, grandson of the unsuccessful claimant, had 
generally been a supporter of Edward, and had taken a prominent 
part in establishing the new constitution. He had a g-reat foe 
in John Comyn of Badenoch, the hereditary rival of his house. In 
1306 the two enemies agreed to make peace and meet at Dumfries 
to discuss their future action. There Bruce suddenly fell upon 
Comyn and treacherously murdered him. Despairing of Edward's 
pardon, he fled to the hills, and finding the people rallying round 
him, he dexterously posed as the champion of Scottish inde- 
pendence, and renewed his house's claim to the throne. The Scots 
were glad to follow any leader against the hated English, and 
Bruce, though treacherous and self-seeking, soon showed that he 
had the ability and courage necessary to rule a people struggling 
for freedom. In a few months he was crowned king at Scone, and 
for the third time Edward had to face the prospect of conquering 
afresh the stubborn nation that had so long defied his e:ffiorts. 

30. Edward was now nearly seventy years of age, and his health 
had latterly been broken ; but his courage was as high as ever, and 
Death of ^^ resolved to conquer Scotland for the third time. In 
Edward I., 1307 the old king was once more on the border, but his 

infirmities made it impossible for him to move quickly. 
The effort proved too much for his declining strength, and on 
July 7 he died at Burgh- on- Sands, almost the last village on 
the English border. With him perished the last hope of con- 
quering Scotland, but though the chief ambition of his Kfe was 
thus a failure, he had done a great work for England. The con- 
queror of Wales, the framer of a whole series of great 'laws, the 
maker of our mediaeval constitution, he had turned the French 



-1307.] EDWARD I. 197 

king" from his dearest purpose, curbed the fierce baronag-e, and even 
set some limits to the claims of the Church. He was the first 
real Englishman to reig-n after the Norman conquest, and the 
creator of the modern English nation as well as of the modern 
English state, though he could not effect his purpose of bringing 
all our island under his own domination. That his own realm 
should henceforth be ruled after a constitutional fashion, and not by 
despotic caprice, seemed assured when even the stubborn will of 
Edward was forced to give way to his subjects. The best guarantee 
for the permanence of the charters and of the popular parKament 
lay in the fact that they were wrested not only from a capricious 
despot like John, or a weakling like Henry iii., but also from a 
strong and powerful king like Edward i. 



CHAPTER III 
EDW^ARD II. OF CARNARVON (1307-1327) 

Chief Dates: 

1307. Accession of Edward ii. 

1311. The Ordinances drawn up. 

1312. Death of Gaveston. 
1314. Battle of Bannockburn. 
1322. Battle of Boroughbridge. 

1326. Landing of Isabella. 

1327. Deposition of Edward ii. 

1. Edward op Carnakvon was twenty-tliree years old wtien lie 
became king. Tall, graceful, and handsome, lie looked almost as 
Edward II ^^ ^ TOCLan as his father, but an utter lack of serious 
and purpose blasted his whole career. It was to no purpose 

Gaveston, that Edward i. had carefully trained his son both in 

1 307 • • 

miKtary science and in business ; the youth showed 

no taste for anything but his own amusements. The old king was 

bitterly disgusted, and attributing his son's levity to the influence 

of a G-ascon knight, Peter of Gaveston, with whom he had been 

educated, he banished the foreign favourite early in 1307. But 

as soon as his father was dead, Edward recalled Gaveston, and, 

despite his having solemnly promised his dying father to persevere 

in it, abandoned the campaign against the Scots. In every way 

he reversed the policy of Edward i., and at once embarked upon a 

course of action that ultimately involved himself in ruin and 

wrought terrible havoc to his kingdom. Though there have been 

worse kings than Edward 11., there have been none so neg'Kgent 

and light-minded. 

2. Under Edward i. the barons had been discontented with the 

growing power of the crown, but had been restrained in their 

Gaveston's opposition by the strong will and wise policy of the 

exile and king. With the accession of Edward 11. the baronial 

recall, opposition at once revived, and soon proved as for- 

1308-1309 • 

midable to the monarchy as in the days of Henry iii. 

The barons' disgust of Edward's affection for Gaveston gave them 



I3I2.] EDWARD II. OF CARNARVON I99 

their first pretext for revolt, and they had the people with them in 
their aversion to the favourite. G-aveston was quick-witted and a 
good soldier, but his head was turned by his sudden elevation, and 
he had an unhappy knack of sharp and hitter speech that mortally 
offended the barons. Before long- Edward made him earl of 
Cornwall and married him to his niece, the sister of the young 
Earl Grilbert of Gloucester. In 1308 a parliament of barons met 
and forced the king to drive him into exile. Edward strove to 
lighten his misfortunes by appointing him governor of Ireland, and 
set to work at once to intrig-ue for his return. In 1309 the king 
shrewdly adopted a long series of reforms, which a parliament of the 
three states urged upon him. In return for these concessions, the 
parKament allowed Edward to bring his friend back to England. 
But the leading barons refused to be bound by the acts of this 
parliament. 

3. In 1310 another baronial assembly resolved to punish the 
king for restoring his favourite by compelling him to appoint a 
committee of barons to draft ordinances for the 

future government of his realm. In a vain hope of nances and 
saving Gaveston, Edward agreed to this proposal, the Lords 
Accordingly, a body of twenty-one Lords Ordainers ^jfo-isil' 
was appointed from the earls, barons, and bishops. 
In 1311 they drew up the Ordinances. By them Gaveston was to 
be banished for life, the great ofl&ces of state were to be filled up 
with the advice of the barons, and the king was not to go to war, 
raise an army, or leave the kingdom without their permission. It 
was a complete programme of limited monarchy, but no word was 
said as to the commons and clergy. To the ordainers parliament 
still meant a parliament of barons. 

4. Gaveston went into exile for the second time, but early in 
1312 Edward recalled him. Thereupon the ordainers raised an army 
and besieged Gaveston in Scarborough Castle. After -phe murder 
a short siege Gaveston surrendered, and the barons of Gaveston, 
agreed to spare his life. Not long after he was brutally 1312. 

put to death by the earl of Warwick, the most rancorous of his 
enemies, who thought himself free to slay the favourite because he 
had not been a party to the promise to spare his life. The king 
was bitterly incensed at the treachery which had lured his favourite 
to death, and feebly strove to revenge him. Ultimately he 
was forced to give way, and leave power in the hands of the 
ordainers. 

5. It was high time that the king and barons made peace, for 



200 



EDWARD II. OF CARNARVON' 



[1307- 



dTiring" their dissensions Robert Bruce had "been establishing his 
power over the whole of Scotland. When Edward i. died, Brace's 
position was still doubtful ; but when the new king 
gave up fighting the war in person the chances of the 
Scots grew brighter. Between 1307 and 1314, Bruce 
conquered nearly all Scotland. He won over most of 
the Scottish barons to his side, and gradually captured 
the strong castles which Edward i. had established 
to keep the Scots in subjection. The chief of the few castles 



Robert 

Bpuee 

becomes 

master of 

Scotland, 

1307-1314. 




Emery Walker Ltd. sc. 



BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN. 



that still remained in English hands was Stirling, a place of great 
military importance, because it commanded the lowest bridge over 
the Forth, by which the easiest road between the Lowlands and 
the Highlands passed. At last Bruce besieged Stirling, and pressed 
the garrison so hard that they agreed to surrender if they were 
not relieved by St. John the Baptist's Day, June 24, 1314, 

6. If Stirling fell, the last vestige of English rule in Scotland 

Battle of ^^^ destroyed, and even Edward felt that he must 

Bannock- make an effort to avoid such a calamity. King and 

^^^^ ' barons accordingly joined to raise a great army, and set 

6ff to relieve Stirling before the appointed day. The mighty host 



-1 314.] EDWARD II. OF CARNARVON' 20 1 

was more formidable in appearance than in reality. The presence 
of the king prevented any real general from being appointed, and 
the barons, still sulky and discontented, fought with undisguised 
reluctance. The English army moved so slowly that it only reached 
the neighbourhood of Stirling- on June 23. Bruce resolved to fight 
a battle to prevent the raising of the siege, and took up a strong 
defensive position on the north bank of the Bannockburn, a few 
miles to the south of Stirling. The English avoided his formidable 
lines and crossed the Bannock lower down. But sections of their 
army were badly beaten in two preliminary skirmishes, and the 
main body, though getting into communication with the garrison 
of StirKng, was forced to pass the night in great dread of attack 
in the swampy plain of the carse, whence the Forth and Bannock 
prevented an easy retreat. Next day, June 24, Bruce saw that the 
enemy had delivered himself into his hands. Though his tmst 
was in infantry, armed with spears and marshalled in dense 
squadrons, he did not hesitate to leave his position on the hills 
and march down over against the English camp, as if challenging 
an attack. Against the best advice Edward accepted battle, but 
he neglected all the precautions by which his father had won his 
\4ctories. No effort was made to combine the archers with the 
men-at-arms, and the English relied entirely on the shock of a 
cavalry charge. But the English horsemen failed to penetrate the 
Scottish squares. Soon the whole English army was in a state of 
wild confusion. The few who fought bravely, conspicuous among 
whom was the young earl of Gloucester, perished on the field. 
The majority fled disgracefully, and Edward ii. set the example of 
cowardice to his army. Bruce won a complete victory. Stirling 
Castle opened its gates to him, and Scottish independence was fully 
vindicated. 

7. The disaster of Bannockburn made Edward more dependent 
upon his barons than ever. For the next few years power remained 
with the ordainers, but the ordainers proved as in- 
competent as Edward to govern England. Their Thomas of 

T QnOQC + O*! 

wisest councillor, Archbishop Winchelsea, was now 
dead, and their leader was Edward's cousin, Thomas, earl of 
Lancaster, the son of Earl Edmund, brother of Edward i. Earl 
Thomas was by far the most powerful and wealthy of the English 
earls. By inheritance and marriage he united under liis control 
the resources of five earldoms. He had been a capable leader of 
opposition, but his ability was small ; he was greedy, selfish, and 
domineering, and knew better how to humiliate the king than to 



202 EDWARD II. OF CARNARVON [1322. 

rule the country. He made few attempts to save the northern 
counties from the freqnent forays with which the Scots now 
insulted the weakness of England. The cqnntry was full of tumult 
and private war, and as Lancaster's weakness became known, even 
Edward plucked up courage to assert himself. It looked as if 
England was threatened with a new war between the king and 
his cousin. 

8. The wiser barons now took matters into their own hands. 

Headed by Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, they made terms 

with the better men of the court. The coalition thus formed sought 

to impose terms on both Edward and Thomas. In 1318 this middle 

party got power into its own hands by the Treaty of Leahe, which 

was confirmed in the parliament of York. By it a standing council, 

like the Fifteen of 1258, was appointed to act in the king's name. 

Edward was allowed little power, but was treated respectfully, while 

Lancaster was muzzled and held aloof in sulky isolation. From 

1318 to 1321 things went much better, but the quarrels of the 

barons at last broke down the unity of the coalition. Edward, eager 

to win back authority, now made a close friendship with the two 

Hugh Despensers, father and son, who had hitherto worked with 

Pembroke, but were soon denounced as favourites. They were at 

least English noblemen, and not foreign upstarts like Gaveston ; 

but the barons soon showed that they could hate a renegade as 

The fall of hitterly as they had ever hated an alien adventurer, 

Lancaster, They strongly resented the titles, estates, and favours 

1322. which Edward conferred on his new friends. In 

particular they took alarm when the younger Despenser, who, like 

Graveston, had married a sister of the earl of Grloucester slain at 

Bannockburn, strove to obtain for himself the position of earl of 

Gloucester, vacant since his brother-in-law's death without male 

heirs. By 1321 the Despensers were strong enough to make the 

barons very anxious to mete out to them the fate of Gaveston. 

Headed by Lancaster, parliament sentenced them to banishment. 

The loss of his favourites inspired Edward with an energy rarely 

to be found in him. In 1322 he took up arms on their behalf, and 

recalled them from beyond the sea. The barons made a poor fight, 

and before long Lancaster was defeated and taken prisoner at the 

hattle of Boroughhridge, in Yorkshire, a fight memorable by the 

adoption by the royalist army of the new fashion of fighting on 

foot, which had won Bannockburn for the Scots. A few days 

later Thomas was tried and executed at his own castle of Pontef ract. 

9. From the fall of Lancaster to 1326 the Despensers ruled 



-1325.] EDV/ARD 11 OF CARNARVON 203 

England. Tkey were shrewd enough, to profit by the errors of 
the ordainers : they sought to improve the government by i great 
schemes of administrative reform, and professed to be j, parra- 
the friends of the Commons. Immediately after merit of 
Lancaster's death a parliament was held at York, York, 1322. 
which revoked the ordinances as infringing the rights of the 
crown, and because they were drawn up by a council of barons 
only. This parKament laid down the important principle, that 
matters which are to be established for the estate of our lord the 
king and for the estate of the realm, shall be treated in parliament 
by a council of the prelates, earls, and barons, and the commonalty 
of the realm. This is the most important constitutional advance 
made under Edward ii. Henceforth no law could be regarded as 
valid unless it had received the consent of the Commons. 

10. Despite this wise beginning, the rule of the Despensers 
broke down as signally as that of Lancaster. They were utterly 
unable to guard the north of England from the 
devastating inroads of Robert Bruce, and in 1322 made of the 

a truce with him which practically recognized him Despensers, 
as king of Scots. The favourites thought more of 
winning territory and wealth for themselves than of the good 
government of the kingdom. The elder Hugh became earl of 
Winchester, and his son acquired the power and many of the 
estates, though not the title, of the earl of Gloucester. Their cove- 
tousness and pride made them generally hated, and their folly pre- 
vented them from taking proper measures to protect themselves. 
They soon excited the enmity of all classes against them. 

11. Among the many persons whom the Despensers offended 
was the queen, Isabella of France, a daughter of Philip the Fair. 
Seeing that she was not strong enough to induce her 

husband to dismiss his favourites, she cleverly dis- MorUn^p" 
sembled her wrath, and, in 1325, persuaded her husband 
to allow her to visit France, then ruled by her brother. King 
Charles iv. With her went her eldest son, Edward of Windsor, 
who was appointed by his father duke of Aquitaine, and com- 
missioned to do homage for that duchy on behalf of the king of 
England. At Paris Isabella made friends with some of the exiled 
members of Lancaster's party at whose head was Roger Mortimer 
of Wigmore, the most powerful of the barons from the March of 
Wales, who was eager to be avenged on the Despensers and obtain 
restoration to his estates. At Mortimer's advice, Isabella refused 
to return to England as long as the Despensers remained in power. 



204 EDWARD II. OF CARNARVON [1327. 

Soon the scandal caused by the queen's open affection for Mortimer 
induced King Charles to send her out of France. Therefore she 
went to Hainault, where she betrothed her son to Philippa, daughter 
of the count of Hainault, and obtained from him enough soldiers 
and money to make it possible for her to invade England and drive 
her husband from the throne. 

12 In September, 1326, Isabella, Mortimer, and the young 
Edward landed at Orwell, in Essex, declaring* that they had come 
The fall of ^^ avenge the murder of Lancaster and to drive the 
Edward II., Despensers from power. England was so tired of 
1326-1327. Edward and the Despensers, that men of all ranks 
flocked eagerly to the camp of the queen. The chief barons, 
including Henry of Lancaster, the brother and heir of Earl 
Thomas, declared in her favour. The Londoners murdered 
Edward's ministers, and opened their g'ates to his enemies. 
Against these powerful forces Edward 11. could do nothing. He 
fled to the west, accompanied by the Despensers, and rapidly 
followed by Isabella and Mortimer. The elder Despenser was 
taken and slain at Bristol, and his son was hanged at Hereford. 
The king strove to take refuge in the younger Hugh's Glamorgan- 
shire estates, but he was soon tracked out and brought prisoner 
to London. Early in 1327 parliament met at Westminster. It 
recognized Edward of Aquitaine as Edward iii., and forced the 
old king to resign the crown to his son. Next year the deposed 
monarch was cruelly murdered at Berkeley Castle, in Gloucester- 
shire. He was the most worthless of our kings, and richly 
deserved deposition, yet few beneficial changes have been brought 
about with more manifest self-seeking than that which hurled him 
from power. The angry spite of the adulterous queen, the fierce 
rancour and greediness of Roger Mortimer, and the cowardice of 
the lesser agents of the revolution can inspire nothing but disgust. 
Among Edward's foes, Henry of Lancaster alone behaved as an 
honourable gentleman. But though his wrongs were ostentatiously 
put forward, he was, like the young* duke of Aquitaine, a mere tool 
in the hands of Isabella and her paramour. Yet the ostentatious 
care shown to make parliament responsible for the change of ruler 
showed that even the weak reign of Edward 11. had done some- 
thing to strengthen the fabric of the English constitution. 



CHAPTER IV 

EDWARD III. (1327-1377) 

Chier dates : 

1327. Accession of Edward iii. 

1328. Peace of Northampton. , 
1330. Fall of Mortimer. 

1333. Battle of Halidon Hill. 

1337* Beginning of Hundred Years' War. 

1340. Battle of Sluys. 

1346. Battles of Crecy and Neville's Cross. 

1348. Outbreak of the Black Death. 

I35l« Statute of Provisors. 

1353' Statute of 'jPrasmimire. 

1356. Battle of Poitiers. 

1360. Treaties of Bre'tigni and Calais. 

1367. Battle of Najera. 

1369. Renewal of the Hundred Years' War. 

1371. Clerical ministers removed from office. 

1376. The Good Parliament, 

I377« Death of Edward iii. 

1. Edttard III. was only fourteen years old when lie became king-, 
and for three years Isabella and Mortimer ruled in his name. 
Nominally power went to the council, of which Henry _,, ^ ^^j^ ^^ 
of Lancaster, now restored to his brother's title and Isabella and 
estates, was chairman. Troubles at once arose, both ^oovlTooA 
with Scotland and France. Robert Bruce's fighting 
days were over, but he took advantage of the revolution in England 
to send an army across the border. Though a great force was 
gathered together to repel the Scots, the English dared not risk a 
battle, and soon began to negotiate for peace. In 1328 this 
resulted in the treaty of Northampton, by which England with- 
drew all claim to feudal superiority over Scotland, recognized 
Robert Bruce as king of Scots, and agreed to the marriage of his 
son David to Joan, Edward's infant sister. The treaty excited great 
indignation, and men called it a shameful peace, but it is difficult 
to see on what other terms an agreement could have been made. 

205 



206 EDWARD III. [1327- 

There was not tlie least cliance of driving Robert Bruce from tlie 
throne whicL. lie liad so laboriously won for himself. To continue 
the war was useless, and its only result would have been to expose 
the northern counties of England to constant Scottish invasions. 
Yet the formal surrender of Edward i.'s claims over Scotland cost 
much to a proud and high-spirited nation. The humiliation was the 
worse since it was only by concessions almost as hard that Isabella 
and Mortimer managed to secure peace with France. During the 
troubles that preceded the faU. of Edward of Carnarvon, Charles iv. 
had taken possession of Gascony, on account of which nominal war 
had broken out between the two countries. The EngKsh were 
as little able to reconquer Gascony as to win back Scotland, and 
here again Isabella and Mortimer accepted inevitable facts, though 
they were more fortunate than in their dealings with the northern 
kingdom, since they obtained a partial restoration of Gascony 
before they would agree to conclude peace. This was done by the 
treaty of Paris of 1327. From this time the English duchy of 
Gascony was cut down to narrow limits, centring round the cities 
of Bordeaux and Bayonne. Next year, 1328, Charles iv. died, having 
been the third son of Philip iv. to reign in succession over France 
and die without male heirs. Immediately the French barons 
recognized the nearest male heir, Philip, count of Yalois, the son of 
Charles, count of Yalois, a brother of Philip iv., as King Philip vi. 
It had already been laid down in France, when Philip the Fair's 
eldest son died, leaving a daughter, that women were excluded from 
the succession. Accordingly the accession of Philip vi. went 
almost as a matter of course. Isabella, however, who was Charles's 
sister, protested against the Valois succession. She recognized 
that France must have a king, and did not claim the throne for 
herself. However, she maintained that a woman, though incapable 
of reigning, might form the " bridge and plank " through which 
her son, Edward iii., might succeed. The French barons rightly 
regarded this as a dangerous claim. Its effect would have been, 
whenever a king died without a son, to transfer the throne to 
some foreign prince, whose descent could be traced to a lady of the 
royal house. The French were not willing to hand over their 
throne to a foreign sovereign, and Isabella's claim on her son's 
behaK was quietly pushed aside. She was quite unable to do more 
than protest, and in 1329 her son virtually recognized the lawful- 
ness of Philip's position by performing homage to him for 
Aquitaine. 



-1329.] EDWARD III, 207 



GENEALOGY OF THE FRENCH KINGS OF THE DIRECT CAPETIAN 
LINE, SHOWING EDWARD III.'s CLAIMS 

Hugh Capet, 
987-996. 

Robert, 
996-1031. , 

Hexry /., 
1031-1060. 

Philip i., 

1060-1108. 

j 

Louis vi., 
1108-1137 

Louis vii., 
1137-1180. 

Philip ii., Augustus, 
1180-1222. 

Louis viii., 
1222-1226. 



I 

Louis ix., 


I 
Charles of Anjou, 


m. Margaret of Provence, 


King of Sicily, 


1226-1270. 


m. Beatrice of Provence, 


1 


d. 1285. 


Philip hi., 




the Bold, 


^ 


1270-1285. 

1 


1 



Philip iv., Charles, Count of Valois. 

the Fair, | 

1285-1314. Philip vi., of Valois, 
I 1328-1350. 

i \ \ ^1 

Louis x., Philip v., Charles iv., Isabella, 

1314-1316. 1316-1322. 1322-1328, m. Edward 11. 

of England. 

I 
Edward iii. 

French kings mentioned in the text in small capitals ; all names not 
mentioned in the text in italics. 

2. The home g-ovemment of Isahella and Mortimer was as 
unsuccessful as their foreign policy. Mortimer thought of nothing 
save of acquiring a great position for himself. His ambition was 



20 8 EDWARD III. [1329- 

to Tinite the whole of the "Welsh March under his sway, and he 
received the title of earl of the March of Wales, or, more shortly, 
The fall of ^^^^ ^^ March. For a time he vigorously stamped out 
Moptimep, all attempts to oppose him. His last triumph was 
1330. ^^ 1330, when he put to death Edmund, earl of Kent, 

Edward i.'s son by his second wife, who had convinced himself that 
his brother, Edward 11., was still alive, and strove to bring about 
his restoration to the throne. Edward ill. was now becoming a 
man, and was keenly alive to the humiliation involved in his 
dependence on his mother and her paramour. Henry of Lancaster 
was equally indignant at his exclusion from all real share of power. 
Accordingly, in 1330, a conspiracy was arranged to drive Mortimer 
from the position which he had usurped. A band of soldiers was 
introduced throug-h a secret passage into IS'ottingham Castle, 
where Mortimer and the queen were staying. The favourite was 
arrested and soon afterwards hanged. Isabella was henceforward 
excluded from any share in public affairs. With their f aU. the real 
reign of Edward iii. begins. 

3. Edward iii. was not a great man like Edward i., but he won 
a conspicuous place in history by the extraordinary activity of his 
Character temperament, and the vigour and energy with which 
and policy of he threw himself into whatever work he set himself to 
Edward III. ^^ jj^ delighted in hunting and tournaments, was 
liberal, easy of access, good tempered, and kindly. He was not 
only a consummate knight, but a capable soldier, with the general's 
eye that takes in the points of a situation at a glance. His weak 
points were his extravagance, his love of frivolous amusement, his 
self-indulgence, and his disregard for his plighted word. His main 
ambition in life was to win fame and glory abroad, but he ruled 
England creditably, and made many concessions to liis subjects' 
wishes in order to obtain supplies for carrying on his foreign wars. 
Like Edward i., he attempted far more than he was able to carry 
through ; but it was only at the very end of liis reign that his 
subjects realized that the popular and glorious king had failed in 
his chief ambitions. 

4. In the early years of his personal rule, Edward's chief object 
was to win back for England something of the greatness it had 
David Bruce ^^^l^^^^^d under Edward i. He was bitterly irritated 
and Edward at the establishment of Scottish independence, and 
Balliol, before long fortune gave him a chance of upsetting in 

an indirect way the treaty of Northampton. Robert 
Bruce died in 1329, and was succeeded by his son David, Edward iii.'s 



-1333.] EDWARD HI. 209 

brother-in-law, wlio was a mere boy. Under his weak govern- 
ment troubles soon broke out in Scotland. A large number of 
Scottish barons who had opposed Hobert Bruce had been driven 
into exile when Robert became king. They were called the Dis- 
inherited, and they saw in the minority of King David a chance of 
winning back their estates by force. At their head was the son of 
the deposed King John, Edward BaUiol, who had not forgotten his 
father's claim on the Scottish throne. Edward iii. gave them no 
direct help, as he feared to break wantonly the treaty of Northamp- 
ton. However, he made no effort to prevent the Disinherited from 
collecting a little army, with which they invaded Scotland in 1332, 
under the command of Edward BaUiol. The invaders won a 
decisive victory over the army of King David at Bujpjplin Moor 
near Perth. A few weeks later Balliol was crowned king of Scots 
at Scone. He gained recognition by Edward as king of Scots through 
promising to hold Scotland of him, and to cede him Berwick. The 
. party of David, however, was not entirely crushed, and before the 
end of the year they surprised Balliol at Annan, and drove him 
back into England. His reign only lasted four months. 

5. Edward iii. now openly took up Balliol's cause, and in 1333 
invaded Scotland to restore his vassal to his throne. His first step, 
was to besiege Berwick, and the Scots forced Edward 
to fight a battle before he could secure the town, j^^j* \2Z3 
This fight was fought at Halidon Hill, a short 
distance west of Berwick. The English men-at-arms dismounted 
and fought on foot after the Scottish fashion. Their tactics 
proved signally successful. The Scots were beaten, and next 
day Berwick opened its gates, to be for the rest of its history an 
English frontier town. Edward's action now showed that Balliol 
was but a tool in his hands. In 1334 he restored his namesake to his 
throne, but only on his agreeing to cede to England the whole of 
Lothian and the eastern part of Galloway. Any faint chance that 
Balliol had of success was completely destroyed by Edward's 
greediness. The Scots hated him as the betrayer of his country, 
and the English treated him as the puppet of their king. For 
many years he strove to make himself real master of that part of 
Scotland which Edward permitted him to claim. David was sent 
to France for safety, but most Scots still upheld him against the 
two Edwards. At no time did either Edward Balliol David finally 
or the King of England effectively possess the Scottish established 
lands they claimed as theirs. But their efforts to in Scotland, 
establish themselves involved the north in many years of bloodshed 

p 



2IO 



EDWARD III. 



[1333^ 



and misery. At last, after Edward iii.'s "breach with France, 
David returned to Scotland and made himself king over the whole 
country. Thus Edward in. failed as sig-nally as his grandfather 
in his efforts to conquer Scotland. 

6. During the years of Edward's attempt on Scotland the 




Emery Walker sci 

NOKTHERN ENGLAND AND SOUTHERN SCOTLAND IN THE FOURTEENTH 

CENTURY. 

relations of England and France "became increasingly unfriendly. 
Causes of Edward complained that Philip vi. kept David at his 
the Hundred court, and openly took the side of the Scots against 
Years' War. ^^^ EngHsh. There were other difficulties ahout 
Gascony, where PhiKp vi., like Philip iv., was doing what he 
could to lessen the power of Edward as duke. It was, in fact, 
the impossible position of Edward in Gascony which caused the 
fundamental difference between the two nations. Edward could 
not abandon his ancient patrimony, and Philip could not give 
up the policy of every king since St. Louis of gradually absorbing 



-I337-] EDWARD III. 211 

tlie great fiefs in tlie royal domain. Besides this, there were 
many secondary causes of the war. One of these was Philip's 
support of the Scots. Another cause of dispute arose from 
the rival interests of England and France in Flanders. This 
county, though nominally a fief of France, was largely hostile to 
the French king. Flanders in those days was the chief manu- 
facturing district in northern Europe, and its chief towns, Ghent, 
Bruges, and Ypres, were the best customers that England had. 
England in the fourteenth century was a purely agricultural and 
pastoral land. Its chief product was wool, which was exported to 
Flanders to be woven into cloth in its populous clothing* towns. 
The great Flemish towns had liberties so extensive that they were 
virtually independent, both of their immediate master the count 
of Flanders, and of his overlord, the king of France. The count 
of Flanders called in the help of Philip vi. to subdue his unruly 
townsmen, and these in their turn appealed to Edward for help. 
The leader of the Flemish citizens was James van Artevelde of 
Ghent. He saw that the best hopes of Flemish municipal inde- 
pendence lay in a close alliance with England, and was eag*er to win 
over Edward to his side. Under his guidance the towns of Flanders 
drove away their count, and made a treaty with England. Philip 
deeply resented Edward's interference with his Flemish vassals. 
He was stUl more angry when Edward added to the Flemish alliance 
a close friendship with the Emperor Louis of Bavaria and the chief 
imperial vassals of the Netherlands. Louis of Bavaria, who had 
married Queen Pliilippa's sister, was now engaged in a fierce 
struggle with the Avignon popes, who had excommunicated and 
deposed him. Yet, in 1338, Edward visited Louis at Coblenz, on the 
Rhine, where he made a close alliance with him, and was appointed 
the emperor's vicar in the Netherlands. Thereupon the count of 
Hainault and Holland, brother-in-law of king and emperor alike, 
the duke of Brabant, and other Netherlandish vassals of Philip, 
took Edward's pay and agreed to help him against France. This 
aUiance intensely annoyed the pope, who had long been making 
strenuous efforts to bring about peace. But the popes were now 
Frenchmen, and thought by England to be prejudiced in favour of 
France, so that the chief result of their interference was to make 
the papacy disliked in England. Besides all these troubles, there 
were many commercial disputes, and French and English sailors 
were akeady contending with each other at sea, as they had done 
in 1293. 

7. Under these circumstances both countries slowly drifted into 



212 EDWARD III. [i339- 

war, and the first open hostilities took place in 1337. When war 
had already become inevitable, Edward iii. immensely complicated 
The chief ^^ situation by reviving- the claims on the French 
features crown which Isabella had advanced on his behaK at the 

of the ^jjj^g of ^]^0 accession of Philip of Yalois. At first 

these claims were not very seriously meant, and it is 
a mistake to suppose that they were the chief cause of the war. It 
was not until 1340 that Edward assumed the title of King- of 
France, and then he did so simply ta please the Flemings, who had 
scruples in fighting* their feudal overlord, which disappeared 
when they persuaded themselves that Edward, and not Philip, was 
the real king of France. From that moment, however, Edward's 
pretensions became more important. The persistence of Edward 
and his successors in maintaining the claim made real peace 
impossible for many generations. The result was that the war 
which now began is known in history as the Hundred Years^ War. 
Though fighting did not go on all that time without a break, 
England and France were for more than a hundred years generally 
unfriendly, and nearly always actually at war with each other. 
Even when peace was made, the claim was not dropped, and every 
English king down to G-eorge iii. called himself king of France, 
and quartered on his shield the lilies of France with the lions of 
England. Edward's claim did not seem so unreasonable then as it 
seems to modern eyes, but the French rightly resisted it, as his 
success would have meant the subjection of their land to the rule 
of a foreigner. 

8. War on a great scale began in 1339, when Edward led an 
English army to the Netherlands, and strove, with the help of his 
The Nethep Flemish and imperial allies, to invade the northern 
landish frontiers of France. Neither Edward nor Philip 
Campaigns, ventured to fight a pitched battle, and Edward's 

German confederates were more anxious to take his pay 
than to do him real service. The only result of Edward's Nether- 
landish campaigns was to exhaust his resources and diminish his 
reputation. 

9. The most decisive fighting during- these wars was at sea. 
The French had planned a great invasion of England, and though 
The Battle this came to nothing, they collected a powerful fleet, 
of Sluys, which, in 1340, strove to prevent Edward's returnins- 

to the Netherlands to renew the campaign. The result 
of this was a great sea fight off the Flemish port of Shiys, in 
which the French navy was absolutely destroyed. This battle put 



1346.] 



EDWARD III, 



213 



an end to all schemes of invasion, and gave tlie English, for many- 
years the command of the Channel. Henceforward Edward boasted 
that the king of England was lord of the sea. Yet even the glory 
of Sluys did not help Edward in his land campaign. Before the 
end of 1340 he made a truce with the French and returned to 
England. Thoiig-h his people had granted him large supplies, he 
was almost bankrupt. He unfairly laid the blame of this on his 
ministers, the chief of whom was John Stratford, Archbishop of 




Emery WaUccr sc- 



THE CRBCY CAMPAIGN, 1346. 



Canterbury, On his return to England he drove Stratford from 
power, and appointed an entirely new body of ministers. 

10. Before the truce expired a fresh cause of difference arose 
between Edward and Philip. There was a disputed succession to 
the Duchy of Brittany, between John of Montf ort and war of 
Charles of Blois. As PhiKp supported the claims of the Bpeton 
Charles of Blois, Edward upheld those of Montfort. succession. 
Both kings went to Brittany to uphold their respective champions, 
and there fought campaigns that were almost as futile and expen- 
sive as the campaigns in the Netherlands. In 1345 direct war was 
renewed, and at first the chief fighting was in Gascony. Both 
countries frittered away their strength in desultory warfare, and 
very little came of it. 

11. More serious results followed in 1346. In that year Edward 
led a great English army into Normandy, and took with him 



214 



EDWARD III. 



[134&. 



Ms eldest son, Edward, Prince of "Wales, a youth, of sixteen, after- 
ward^ famous as the Black Prince. In July the Eng-Hsh. landed 
The I - ^^ "^^ Hougue in the Cotentin, and marched through 

vasionof I^ormandy, plundering and devastating, and only 
Normandy, meeting with serious resistance at Caen, which they 
captured. Thence they struck the left bank of the 
Seine, and advanced up the river almost to the gates of Paris. Philip 
gathered together a numerous force for the defence of his capital, 
and Edward was forced to retreat northwards, closely followed by 
the French king. At last he reached the river Somme, but he 
found the bridges guarded by the French, and was unable to get over 
the stream. There was grave danger of his being driven into a 
corner between the Somme and the sea, when he luckily discovered 
a ford, called Blanchetaque, by which the Somme was crossed. 

12. The French were so close on Edward's heels that lie was 



Battle of 

CRECY 

1346. 

Engflish Mile 
"A '4 



English dismounted men at arms.^.^m 

English archers - ::::::: 

French cavalry .^3 

French infantry in rear HII 

Genoese crossbowmen go|% 




Emery Walker sc. 



obliged to turn and fight a battle in his own inheritance of Ponthieu. 
The Battle He took up a strong position on a low hill, with his 
of Cr^cy, right resting on the little town of Crecy, and his left 
on the village of Wadicourt. After the fashion learnt 



1346. 



in the Scottish wars, the English knights and men-at-arms sent 
their horses to the rear and fought on foot, standing in close array^ 



1346. J EDWARD III. 21 5 

and divided into three great divisions. Two of these were stationed 
on the crest of the hill, while the third was posted in the rear 
in reserve, nnder the king in person. The archers, who since 
Halidon HOI had been regarded as a very important element in 
the English army, were posted on the wings of each of the three 
divisions. The French took up their position on an opposite hiU, 
separated from the English by a shallow waterless depression 
called the Vallee anx Clercs. Their nnmhers were much greater 
than those of the Engiish, but they were much worse commanded 
and worse disciplined. They still fought in the old feudal fashion, 
set little store on their infantry, which they placed in the rear, 
and threw their main effort in a cavalry charge. The battle began 
in the afternoon of August 26. The French, who had marched 
all the way from Abbeville, were already weary, but their leaders 
were so confident of victory that they insisted upon attacking the 
English at once. The first hostilities proceeded from the advance 
of a force of Genoese crossbowmen, who were ordered to shoot their 
bolts against the English lines to prepare their way for the cavalry 
charge. But the crossbows had an inferior range to the English 
long bows, and, to make matters worse, the evening sun was 
shining behind the English lines right in the faces of the Genoese, 
many of whose weapons had, moreover, been made useless by a 
recent shower, which had wetted their strings. The result was 
that few bolts from the crossbowmen reached the English ranks, 
whilst the arrows of our archers soon threw the Genoese back in 
confusion. By this time the French cavalry had grown impatient 
of waiting. At last they rushed fiercely through the ranks of the 
unlucky crossbowmen and made their way through the valley 
towards the English lines. Again the archers threw the enemy 
into confusion, and though they made repeated charges, few of the 
French succeeded in crossing lances with the enemy. At one point 
only did they get near their goal, and that was on the English rig-ht, 
where the Prince of Wales was in command. A timely reinforce- 
ment saved the position, and the French retreated, protected, as 
the English boasted, by the rampart of the dead they left behind 
them. It was the greatest victory of the age, and won for the 
English a great reputation as warriors. Moreover, it proved 
conclusively that disciplined infantry could withstand a cavalry 
charge, and so taught all Europe the superiority of the tactics 
which the English had adopted. 

13. So war-worn were the victors that all the immediate profit 
they could win was the power to continue undisturbed their march 



2l6 EDWARD III. [1346- 

to the sea coast. Instead, however, of returning to England, 
Edward laid siege to Calais, the most northerly town of the French 
Calais king's dominions. He persevered in this siege for more 

Auberoehe, than a year, and in 1347 the famine-stricken bnrgesses 
Neville's q£ Calais were compelled to open their gates to him. 

La Ro'ehe ^^^ more than two hundred years Calais remained an 
Derien, English town, and was of great importance, both as a 

1346-1347. fortress through which an English army might at any 
time be poured into France, and as a warehouse through which the 
weavers of Flanders were to draw their supplies of raw wool. 
Crecy and Calais were not the only triumphs of this glorious time. 
Edward's cousin, Henry, earl of Lancaster, son of the Earl Henry 
we have already mentioned, won decisive victories in Gascony at 
Auberoehe and Aiguillon. David, king of Scots, who invaded 
England when Edward was fighting the Crecy campaig'n, was 
defeated and taken prisoner at the battle of Neville's Cross, 
near Durham. In 1347 Charles of Blois was beaten and captured 
in the battle of La Roche Derien, which secured for a time the 
establishment of Montfort's cause in Brittany. Yet in the midst 
of his career of conquest Edward concluded a new truce in 1347. 
His want of money and the need of repose account for this halt in 
the midst of victory. Yet the necessity of the truce showed that 
Edward had embarked upon a course far beyond his capacity. 
However many battles he might win, it was clear that he could 
never conquer all France. 

14, Up to this point Edward's reign had been a time of great 

prosperity. Edward had, it is true, dissipated his resources in 

The Black fighting the French and the Scots, but the country 

Death, 1348- was sufficiently wealthy to bear its burdens with- 

1 04,0 . 

jo-i-a. Q^^ much real suffering. A war waged exclusively 

abroad did little direct harm to England, and offered a lucrative, 
if demoralizing, career to the soldiers, who received high wages and 
good hopes of plunder in the king's foreign service. The war was 
popular, and the English supremacy at sea did much to promote 
our foreign trade. But in 1348 a pestilence, known as the Blach 
Death, which had already devastated eastern and southern Europe, 
crossed over the Channel and raged with great virulence in Eng- 
land until 1349. It is sometimes thought that a third of the 
population died of the Black Death, and the results of the visita- 
tion changed the whole character of English history. 

15. The horrors of the plague could not destroy Edward's 
satisfaction in his victories. In the midst of the visitation, he 



-1356.] EDWARD III. 21/ 

celebrated by magnificent feasts and entertainments tbe establish- 
ment of the Order of the Garter, the first and most famous 
of those orders of knighthood which delighted the r^^ie Black 
chivalry of the fourteenth century. Neither the Prince in 
plague nor the truce entirely stopped the war, and there Aquitaine, 
was much fighting, though most of it was indecisive 
and on a small scale. Grradually the main scene of operations 
shifted to the south, and in 1355 Edward sent the Black Prince to 
Grascony, which then became the chief theatre of events. In 1355 
the Black Prince led a successful raid up the Garonne valley and 
penetrated as far as the shores of the Mediterranean. He re- 
turned loaded with plunder and glory, and, in 1356, started from 
Bordeaux in a similar marauding expedition over central France. 
Accompanied by the best knights of England and Gascony, he 
marched as far as the Loire, and then began to make his way back 
with his booty. Philip vi. had died in 1350, and his son, John, 
now ruled over France. The French king was as gallant a knight 
as the Black Prince, and pursued his foe with a great army in the 
hope of intercepting his retreat. Just as at Crecy, ten years before, 
the prince found himself forced to fight a battle with weary troops 
against enormous odds. 

16. The scene of the action was a few miles south of Poitiers, 
on the banks of the little river Miausson. As at Crecy, Edward 
resolved to fight on the defensive ; he stationed his Battle of 
army on the side of a hill which sloped down on the Poitiers, 
left towards the marshes of the Miausson. Some ^3^°* 
distance in front of the English position, a long hedge and ditch 
afforded an additional means of protection. It was broken by a gap, 
through which a farmer's track connected the fields on either side 
of it. The French had now learnt the English fashion of fighting 
on foot, but they did not fully understand English tactics, and took 
no pains to combine archers and crossbowmen with their men-at- 
arms. They mustered in four lines on the northern side of the 
hedge, and each line in succession strove to make its way through 
to attack the English on the further side. But the hedge 
was lined in force by the English archers, who shot down the 
enemy as they made their way in close order to tlie gap in it. How- 
ever, the French fought desperately, and for long the fight was 
doubtful. A dexterous manoeuvre on the part of Edward at last 
secured him the victory. He ordered the Captal de Buch, the best 
of his Gascon leaders, to march, under cover of a hill, round the 
French position, and attack the enemy in the rear. This settled 



2l8 



EDWARD III. 



C1356' 



tlie hard-fouglit day. Surroimded on every side, tLe French 
perished in the ranks or surrendered in despair. Among* the 
prisoners was king John himself. Soon afterwards he was led 



Battle of 

POITIERS 

1356 



Eng-Iish Mile- 



The Anglo- Gascon army ^m 

English archers at the hedge. .^ xxx 

Flanfi march of the Captal de Buch... .tzz. 
The French army I I 







Hmerv Walker sc. 



in triumph through the streets of London, and joined the king 
of Scots in the Tower. 

17. The captivity of the king threw France into a desperate 
plight. Charles, duke of !N^ormandy, son of King John, acted as 
The treaties ^^S"®^^' ^'^^ ^^ nobles and commons did exactly what 
of Bpetigni they liked, and soon reduced France to a terrible con- 
and Calais, dition of anarchy. In 1359 John made the treaty of 
London with Edward ill., by which he surrendered to 
Edward in full sovereignty nearly all the lands which Henry 11, had 
ruled in France. But the French would not accept so humiliating 
a treaty, and Edward led a new invasion out of Calais to compel 
them to agree to his terms. During the winter and spring of 1360 
Edward marched at his will all over northern France, and attempted 



-1366.] EDWARD III. 219 

tlie siege of Paris. His success in maintaining himself in tlieir 
country showed the French that it was no use resisting any longer, 
and his failure to effect permanent conquest taught Edward the 
necessity of abating some of his demands. Accordingly negotia- 
tions were renewed, and in May, 1360, preliminaries of peace were 
arranged at Bretigni, near Chartres, which took their final form in 
the treaty of Calais of October. By this John was released in 
return for an enormous ransom. Edward abandoned his claim to 
the French crown on condition of receiving Calais and Ponthieu 
and the whole of Aquitaine, including Poitou and the Limousin. 
The English rejoiced at the conclusion of so brilliant a peace, and 
the French were giad to be delivered from the long anarchy. 

18. It was easier to make peace than to carry out the treaty. 
King John, who had been liberated, found it impossible to raise 
his ransom from his impoverished subjects, and was ,-, 
annoyed to find that one of his sons, left as hostage for tion of the 
his return, had broken his word and fled to France, treaty of 
Thereupon he honourably returned to his captivity, ^ ^^^* 

and died in England in 1364. Charles of IsTormandy now became 
Charles v. He was less chivalrous and heroic, but more prudent, 
than his father. Under his rule France recovered from the worst 
horrors of the evil days after Poitiers. His chief trouble was with 
the disbanded soldiers, who, losing their occupation with the peace, 
had organized themselves into formidable armies under generals of 
their own choice, and carried on war on their own account. 

19. A civil war in Castile gave Charles the opportunity of 
persuading the Free Companies, as they were called, to abandon 
France for more distant lands. A revolt had broken xhe civil 
out in that country against its king Peter, infamous war in 

in history as Peter the Cruel. The rebels had set up Castile, 
his haK-brother, Henry of Trastamara, as their king, and Henry, 
despairing of his position, appealed to Charles v. for help. Bertrand 
du GuescHn, a Breton nobleman who had won a great reputation 
dui'ing the succession war in his native duchy, welded the scattered 
companies into an army and led them over the Pyrenees. English 
as well as French mercenaries gladly joined under his banner, and, 
with his help, Henry drove his brother into exile and became, in 
1366, Henry 11. of Castile. The deposed tyrant went to Bordeaux, 
where, since 1363, the Black Prince had lived as prince of Aquitaine, 
for Edward iii. had created his new possessions into a principaKty 
and conferred it on his son, in the hope of conciliating the Gascons by 
some pretence of restoring their independence. Peter easily 



rhe English Dominions in 

FRANCE 

T the Treaties of Bretigni and 
Calais,-i36o. 

English Miles 
50 100 

lish Tenitory 

ndary of French Kingdom 

tiefields..- 'J'Vr 

ch of the Black Pnnce 1355 

ch of the Black Prince 1356 
ch of the Black Prince 1367. 




1369.] EDWARD III. 221 

persuaded the prince to restore him to his throne by force, and, in the 
spring- of 1367, Edward made his way with an army through the 
pass of Roncesvalles in the hope of reconquering Cas- jhe Battle 
tile for his ally. Beyond the Ehro at the village of of Najera, 
Najera, on April 3, he met Henry of Trastamara and *2^^- 
Du Guesclin in battle, and won a complete victory over them. 
After tliis he restored Peter to the Castilian throne and returned 
to Aquitaine. But during the campaign the prince contracted the 
beginnings of a mortal sickness and lost the greater part of his 
army from disease. Henceforth misfortune dogged his whole career. 
In 1368 Henry of Trastamara returned to Spain, defeated and 
killed Peter, and established himself permanently as king of Castile. 
Thus the whole work of the prince in Spain was undone. 

20. Up to the time of his Castilian expedition, the Black Prince's 
rule in Aquitaine had been fairly successful. It was popular with 
the towns, and especially with those like Bordeaux jhe pevolt 
and Bayonne, which had been for a long time subject of Aquitaine, 
to the English dukes. His court at Bordeaux was one ^269. 

of the most brilliant and magnificent in Europe. Yet Edward 
could never win over the newly ceded districts, which had abandoned 
their French nationality with great reluctance, and were eagerly 
awaiting an opportunity for revolt. He looked with suspicion 
upon the great lords, and gave them much offence by limiting their 
privileges and excluding them from his confidence. Things became 
worse when the expenses of the Spanish campaign compelled Edward 
to impose fresh taxes on the Gascons. In 1368, he obtained from 
the estates of Aquitaine a new hearth-tax. The mass of the people 
paid this willingly, but the greater feudatories availed themselves of 
its imposition as a pretext for revolt. They appealed to Charles v. 
against the tax, and Charles accepted their appeal, declaring 
that his rights as overlord still remained, because all the formalities 
which should have followed the treaty of Calais had not been com- 
pleted. Cited before the Parliament of Paris in 1369, the Black 
Prince replied that he would answer the summons with helmet on 
his head and sixty thousand men at his back. His father re- 
assumed the title of king of France, and war broke out again. 

21. The new struggle was fought with very different results from 
those of the earlier campaigns. Under the guidance of Charles v. 
and Bertrand du Guesclin, the French were much more wisely 
directed than before. They had learned from their failures how to 
defeat the English tactics, and they had the great advantages of 
always taking the offensive and having the people of the country 



222 EDWARD IIL [1369- 

actively on tlieir side. Du GriiescKn's policy was to avoid pitched 
battles and encourage the English to waste their resources in 

fruitless forays. The Black Prince's health was now 
the English ®^ ^^^ ^^\> he coiold not mount his charger, but directed 
powep in his army from a horselitter. His last martial exploit 
France, -^g^g ^^ recapture, in 13.70, of Limoges, which had 

thrown off the English yoke. The whole popu- 
lation was put to the sword, and a few gentlemen alone were 
saved for the sake of their ransoms. l!^ext year he went back to 
England for good. His successors were equally unfortunate. In 
1373 his brother, John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, marched with 
an army from Calais to Bordeaux, devastating France from end to 
end. John could not force the French to fight a battle, and before lie 
reached his destination half his army had perished of hunger and cold, 
and in petty warfare. With the help of their Castilian allies the 
French defeated the Eng'lish navy, and, by depriving their enemies 
of the command of the sea, made it very difficult for them to keep 
up communications between England and the armies in France. 
Among the most conspicuous of the French leaders was Sir Owen 
of Wales, a grand-nephew of Llewelyn ap Griffith, who posed as 
lawful prince of Wales, and sought to stir up revolt ag'ainst Edward 
in his native land. After a few years of fighting", the English 
dominions in France were reduced to a few coast towns, and at last, 
despairing of success, Edward iii. made a truce with the French, 
which lasted just long* enough to allow him to end his days in 
peace. The only towns of importance still remaining in English 
hands were Calais, Cherbourg, Brest, Bayonne, and Bordeaux. The 
wave of French national feeling which had swept the EngKsh out 
of the acquisitions made in 1360 had almost engulfed Edward's 
hereditary possessions in Gascony. Crecy and Poitiers were com- 
pletely avenged. 

22. At home, as abroad, there is the same contrast between the 
later and the earlier part of Edward iii.'s reign. The days of 

prosperity ended, as we have seen, with the Black 

partially recovered from the first visitation of the 
plague, others befel them that were scarcely less severe. The years 
1362 and 1369 almost rivalled the horrors of the earlier outbreak. 
Great changes resulted from these plagues. The population de- 
clined so greatly that there were not enough labourers left to till 
the fields, or enough priests remaining to administer spiritual con- 
solations to the dying. The immediate result of this was that 



-I377-] EDWARD III. 223 

every sort of wages rose. Tlie increased sums paid to workers had 
the effect of raising* the prices of most commodities. Yet, the 
plague had so much diminished the prosperity of the country that 
men found themselves hardly able to pay the prices and wages 
which they were accustomed to. In those days, if anything went 
wrong it was thought the business of the state to mj^ 
set it right, and parliament, in 1351, passed a law statute of 
called the statute of Labourers, which enacted that Labourers, 

• 1351 

both prices and wages should remain as they had been 
before the pestilence. It was found impossible to carry out this 
law. Labourers would not work unless they were paid the wages 
they asked for, and employers preferred to break the statute 
rather than see their crops perish in their fields for lack of harvest- 
men. All that landholders could do was to grow those crops which 
needed little labour. Corn-g'rowing was therefore abandoned for 
sheep-farming and cattle-raising, and thus the amount of employ- 
ment in the country became permanently less. Besides this, much 
dissension arose between employers and their workmen. The 
laboirrers complained of the harshness and cruelty of their masters, 
and the masters of the idleness and greediness of the workmen. 
The struggle of classes which resulted from this culminated, as we 
shall see, in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. 

23. The spirit of unrest was everywhere in the air, and the 
same generation that saw the social and economic changes 
which resulted from the Black Death, witnessed the 
beginning of religious discontent that soon threatened Avignon 

to break up the majestic unity of the Western Church, the Statutes 
From 1305 to 1377 the popes lived at Avig-non, and ofProvisops 

were generally Frenchmen ujider the control of the ^""ifpse- 

munirc 
French king-. The English hated the French so 

much that they looked with distrust upon French popes. Even 

under Henry iii. there had been a g*reat outcry against papal 

exactions, and this outcry became much strong'er when there was 

a danger lest the money raised by the pope from English benefices 

found its way, indirectly, into the pockets of our French enemies. 

The system of papal provisions, by which the pope appointed his 

nominees to English benefices, had long excited deep discontent. 

In 1351 a law was passed called the statute of Provisors, which 

attempted to get rid of the abuse. It was followed in 1353 by 

another anti-papal measure, the statute of Prsemunire, which 

was so called from the first word of the Latin writs issued to 

enforce the law. It forbade, under heavy penalties. Englishmen 



224 EDWARD II L [1340- 

carrying" lawsuits out of the country, and though, the papal court 
was not specially mentioned, the measure was clearly aimed against 
it. If these laws had been strictly carried out, the papal authority 
in England would have been almost destroyed, hut parliaments 
were content with making their protest, and Edward himseK set 
the example of disregarding his own laws by asking the pope to 
' make his friends bishops by the way of papal provision. There 
was no real desire to question the papal power as long as the popes 
did not go too far. Yet, however obedient most Englishmen still 
were to the pope's spiritual authority, they utterly repudiated the 
claims to feudal supremacy over England which the popes still made 
by virtue of John's submission. Edward iii. absolutely refused 
to pay the tribute which John had offered to Innocent iii., and in 
1366 parliament declared that neither John nor any one else could 
put England into subjection without the consent of the people. 
The same rising national spirit which resented the interference of 
a foreign ecclesiastic with English affairs inspired the statute of 
1362, which made English instead of French the language of the 
law courts. The tongue which, since the Conquest, had almost 
ceased to be the language of courts and nobles, was, as a result of 
the hatred of aU things French, brought back into greater favour. 
The age of Edward iii. was the age of Chaucer and Gower and 
WycHffe. 

24. The reign of Edward iii. was not marked by any great 
changes in the constitution. Parliaments met very often, and the 
Edward III. king's need for money to carry out his foreign wars 
and his Par- made him willing to abandon many of his powers 
liaments. ]^ return for handsome subsidies. Thus, in 1340, 
Edward accepted a statute which abolished the royal right of 
laying at his discretion taxes called tallages upon the royal domain. 
In 1341, as a result of his conflict with Archbishop Stratford, 
Edward was forced to recognize the claim of members of the House 
of Lords to be tried by their peers. In the same year he allowed 
parliament to nominate his ministers and examine the accounts 
of the national revenue. On this occasion, however, as soon as 
parliament was dissolved, Edward coolly revoked these laws as 
trenching upon his prerogative, and succeeded in persuading the 
next parliament, which met in 1-343, to repeal them. The French 
war was so popular that at first parliament had willingly granted 
Edward supplies to carry it on, and Edward was shrewd enough to 
consult the estates about his foreign poKcy, because he saw that if 
they made themselves responsible for it they could hardly refuse to 



-1376.] EDWARD III. 225 

pay its cost. In 1348.. however, parliament answered liis request 
for advice about the war by declaring they were too ignorant and 
simple to be able to counsel him in such liigh matters. After the 
troubles of the Black Death, the war became less i)opular, and 
parliament joyfully hailed every effort made to procure peace. 

25. Edward and Philippa of Hainault were the parents of a 
large family, and the king's efforts to provide for his children 
without incurring too great expense for himseK form Edward's 
an important element in his later policy. We have family 
seen how the prince of Wales was amply endowed settlement, 
with the new principality of Aquitaine. Besides tliis, the Black 
Prince held Wales, Chester, and Cornwall, while Ms marriage 
to his cousin, Joan of Kent, the heiress of Earl Edmund of Kent, 
executed in 1330, provided him with an additional English earldom. 
Edward introduced a new grade into the English peerage to 
increase the dignity of his son, by making the Black Prince 
duke of Cornwall. It was by the creation of new duchies and 
by rich marriages that Edward iii. provided for his younger 
children. His second son, Lionel of Antwerp, married the heiress 
of the great Irish family of Burgh, earls of Ulster and Connaught, 
and was made duke of Clarence. After his marriage Lionel was 
sent to Ireland to represent his father. He found the English 
power at a low ebb, since Edward Bruce, brother of Robert, king 
of Scots, had made a vaUant attempt to set himself up as king of 
Ireland against Edward II. Bruce was soon slain in battle, but 
English influence never recovered the blow he had dealt to it. To 
revive it now Lionel passed the statute of Kilkenny in 1366, which 
strove to prevent the JSTorman settlers in Ireland from adopting 
Irish ways and making alliance with the native Irish chieftains. The 
law was a complete failure, and Lionel soon retiu'ned to Eng-land 
in disgust. He died soon after, leaving as his heiress a daughter, 
PhiUipa, whose marriage with Edmund Mortimer, earl of March, 
great grandson of the traitor Roger, made the great west country 
house of the Mortimers the representatives of the second line of 
the descendants of Edward iii. The king's third surviving son, 
John of Ghent, or G-aunt, was married to Blanche, heiress of her 
father. Earl Henry, the last of the old line of earls of Lancaster, 
and John was made duke of Lancaster. The eldest son of John 
and Blanche, Henry, earl of Derby, the future Henry iw, married 
one of the heiresses of the Boliuns of Hereford, and Henry's uncle, 
Thomas of Woodstock, afterwards duke of Gloucester, married 
the other Bohun heiress. Edward's family settlement is of great 

Q 



226 EDWARD III. [1376- 

future importance, iDecause it connected tlie royal family witli many 
of the cMef baronial houses, and apparently immensely increased 
its wealth and influence. Its ultimate result, however, was harmful 
to the power of the crown, as the descendants of Edward iii. forgot 
their kinship with the king, and adopted the policy of opposition 
with which the houses into which they intermarried had long heen 
associated. 

26. Factions among his nohles and dissensions "between his sons 
embittered the last years of Edward's reign. The Black Prince 
The court ^^^ John of Gaunt, who had disagreed with each 
and eon- other about the conduct of the war in France, trans- 
stitutional ferred their rivalries to England, and became the 
pap 1 s. heads of sharply marked parties in the council of 
the old king. The ill feeling which parliament had shown to the 
papacy in its legislation included within its scope the English 
church as well. The barons were jealous of the power of the 
higher clergy, and denounced their interference in politics. Up 
to this time some of the chief offices of state, such as that of 
chancellor, had almost invariably been held by a prominent bishop. 
However, in 1371, a group of courtiers procured the removal of the 
king's clerical ministers, and substituted laymen for them. The 
chief of the displaced ministers was William of Wykeham, bishop 
of Winchester. It was natta-al that he and the other bishops 
should be henceforward in opposition to the government. Before 
long Jolm of Gaunt became the leader of an anti-clerical court 
party, and for some years exercised a strong influence over his father, 
who was g-radually falling into his dotage. John's chief helpers 
were Lord Latimer, a London merchant called Richard Lyons, and 
Alice Ferrers, the greedy and unscrupulous mistress of the old 
king. Knowing' that the higher ecclesiastics were bitterly opposed 
to him, John also struck up an alliance with a famous Oxford teacher 
named John WycHSe, who had become conspicuous for his denun- 
ciation of the corruption of the clergy, and for teaching that 
priests should live lives of apostolic poverty and have nothing to do 
with politics. 

27. The rule of John of Gaunt and the courtiers was neither 
honest nor successful, and an active opposition was formed of which 
The Good ^^ Black Prince and the Earl of March were the 
Parliament, leaders. Strong feeling arose in the country against 

the men who had lost aU France and brought Eng- 
land to bankruptcy and shame. This indignation found its expres- 
sion fn a parliament which met in 1376, and became famous as the 



-I377-] EDWARD III. 22/ 

Oood Parliament, Inspired by tlie Black Prmce, tlie Earl Edmund 
of March, and the hishops, the House of Commons made a vigorous 
attack on the courtiers. It chose as its speaker, or spokesman 
before the king, Sir Peter de la Mare, steward of the Earl of 
March, a man who had boldness enough to say what was in his 
mind regardless of the good-will of the great. It accused Latimer 
and Lyons of taking bribes, and the House of Lords condemned 
them to imprisonment. These are the first examples of the process 
called impeachment, by which political offenders were accused by 
the Commons before the Lords. ParKament also removed Alice 
Perrers from court. 

28. In the midst of these proceedings the Commons lost their 
strongest support by the death of the Black Prince. Lancaster 
now resumed his influence ; the Good Parliament was 
dismissed, and, in 1377, a fresh parKament carefully gaunt and 
packed with John's partisans reversed its acts. Parlia- John 
ment was thus silenced. The convocation of Canter- Wyelifife, 
bury remained bitterly hostile to John. Accordingly 
the duke met its opposition by calling John Wycliffe to his aid. 
Wycliffe's denunciations of the rich land-holding prelates were 
answered by an accusation for heresy being brought against him. 
Summoned before Bishop Courtenay of London to answer the 
charge, Wycliffe appeared in St. Paul's, supported by Lancaster 
and Henry Percy, one of Lancaster's chief friends. A violent 
scene took place in the cathedral between Lancaster and the bishop. 
The London mob took the part of Courtenay against the courtiers, 
and rose in a riot, pillaged John's palace, and forced Death of 
him to flee from London. Soon after this stormy Edward III., 
scene Edward iii. died, on June 21, 1377. As he lay ^377. 
dying his courtiers deserted him, and Alice Perrers took to flight 
after robbing him of the rings on his fingers. 



CHAPTER V 
RICHARD II. OF BORDEAUX (1377-1399) 

Chief Dates : 

1377. Accession of Richard ii. 

1378. The Papal schism. 
1381. Peasants' Revolt. 
1384. Death of Wycliffe. 

1388. The Merciless Parliament. 

1396. The Great Truce with France. 

1397. Richard's triumph over the Lords Appellant. 
1399. Deposition of Richard ii. 

1. As the Black JPrince had died before his father, his only son, 
Richard of Bordeaux, a boy ten years of age, succeeded Edward in. 
The Rule ^s Richard ii. N^o regent was appointed, but, as in 

of John the latter years of Henry iii.'s minority, the council 

or Gaunt. ruled in the king's name. This meant in practice 
that the preponderating influence was with John of Gaunt. The 
result was that the first few years of the new reign witnessed the 
continuance of the bad and unpopular government which had dis- 
graced the close of the reign of Edward in. Heavy taxes were 
raised, but the people obtained little benefit from paying them. The 
nobles quarrelled fiercely with each other, and, on the expiration of 
the truce with France, the Erench plundered the English coasts and 
threatened the land with invasion. Luckily, however, for England,. 
Charles v. died in 1380. His son and successor, Charles vi., was 
a boy like Richard, and the Erench soon had reason to say with 
the English, " Woe to the land when the king is a child." Eor 
some years the Hundred Years' War was suspended by reason of 
the weakness of both England and France. 

2. It was a miserable time for Europe generally. In 1378 the 
papacy returned from Avignon to Rome, but the pope who had 
The Papal "^^^ courage to take this step died soon after he reached 
Schism and Italy. His successor. Urban YI., was an Italian, and 
Wyeliffe. Hkely to remain in Rome. Thereupon the French 
cardinals, who wished to keep the pope in their own country, 
228 



1381.] RICHARD II. OF BORDEAUX 229 

denied tlie validity of Urban's election, and chose another pope, 
named Clement vii. Europe divided itself between the two popes, 
and as the French and Scots favoured Clement, the EngKsh 
supported Urban. The result of this Great Schism of the Pajpacy 
was to discredit the popes, who had already lost much ground 
during the captivity at Avignon. The spirit of reKgious unrest 
that was already in the air spread widely, and led men to look 
closely into their beliefs. John Wycliffe had ah'eady made himself 
conspicuous as the ally of John of Gaunt against the over-wealthy 
prelates. Since the scene at St. Paul's in 1377, his views were be- 
coming more and more antagonistic to those professed by the Church. 
In the year of the schism he began to raise doubts as to the truth of 
the doctrine of transuhstantlation, or the change of the bread and 
wine in the Holy Communion into the Body and Blood of Christ, 
which the whole Church had accepted for many centuries. This 
open avowal of heresy lost Wycliffe the support of Lancaster and 
most of his powerful friends. Henceforth he sought to appeal 
to the people as weU as to scholars and men of rank. He sent 
throughout the country disciples who were called his poor priests, 
and by this means his teaching- was spread all over the land. Up 
to now he had written in Latin for scholars, but he henceforth set 
forth his teaching in English. He denied the authority of the 
papacy and of the clergy, and taught that dominion was founded 
on grace, by which he meant that power and property could only be 
rightly held by good men. He also encouraged men to seek for 
their religion in the Bible only. To make the Bible accessible, he, 
with the help of his friends, translated it from Latin into English. 
His teaching excited bitter hostility among the clergy, and in 
1382 his opinions were condemned by a council of English bishops. 
Wy cliff e still had many friends, and was very dexterous in explaining 
away his opinions. He was therefore set free, and spent the rest 
of his life at his country living of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, 
where he died in 1384. His influence continued after his death. 
His followers, called Lollards^ or babblers, spread widely, and, for the 
first time since the establishment of Christianity in England, there 
were many men who disbelieved in the teaching of the Church. 
3. Four years after Richard's accession discontent came to a 

head in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. The causes of „, 

mi /. ji 1 The causes 

this rising were numerous. The deepest of them lay l ©f the 

in the changes which had effected society since the Peasants' 

time of the Black Death. The demand for labour ®^° ''• 

was still great, and the free labourers, who could hire themselves 



230 RICHARD II. OF BORDEAUX [1381. 

out where they would, were bitterly discontented with the laws which 
tried to keep down their wages. They had formed associations to 
defeat the statute of Labourers, and for a generation there had heert 
much quarrelling between them and their masters. The grievances 
of the free labourers were, however, small as compared with the^ 
troubles of the serfs or villeins. In JiTorman times the mass of the 
people had, as we have seen, become villeins. During the fourteenth 
century the number of villeins was steadily decreasing, as many ran 
away from their lords, and many were set free, since lords had 
found that it paid them better to cultivate their lands with free labour, 
while the Church taught that it was a meritorious act to enfran- 
chise a bondman. However, the strong demand for labour, which 
resulted from the decline of population after the pestilence, had 
retarded this movement towards freedom. When it became very 
difficult to obtain free labour, it was natural that the lords of serfs 
should exact to the uttermost the rights they still possessed of com- 
pelling their bondmen to work for them without pay. At the same 
time the villeins became more unwilling to give up so much of their 
time to their lords, when they saw that their free brethren could 
earn large wages without difficulty. The result was that the- 
villeins were even more discontented than the free labourers, and: / 
both classes alike were ripe for revolt. Thus the unrest and dis- 
content of Edward iii.'s time still continued. It was increased by the 
struggles in the boroughs between the craftsmen of the guilds and 
the rich merchants, who kept the government of the towns in their 
own hands, and ruled harshly in the interests of their own class,.^— 
Old soldiers who had come back from the French wars told the^ 
poor English how the men of Flanders had shaken off the yoke of 
their count, and had, by union and determination, won liberty for 
themselves. The friars still wandered through the land, teaching 
that Christ and His apostles had had no property, and denouncing^ 
the oppressions of the rich. Wycliffe's " poor priests " were now 
also traversing the country, maintaining their master's doctrine 
of dominion founded on grace and declaring that it was the 
duty of a Christian to deprive unworthy men of their offices 
and lands. John Ball, an Essex priest, made himself the mouth- 
piece of this widespread discontent. " We are aU come," said he, 
*' from one father and one mother, Adam and Eve. How can the 
gentry show that they are greater lords than we ? " On every 
side the old social order was breaking up, and men were rij)e for 
revolution. 

4. Disgust at the bad government of John of Gaunt and the 



1 38 1.] RICHARD II. OF BORDEAUX 23 1 

council added political to social unrest. Heavy taxes were levied, - — - 
though the people got nothing in return from them. Finally, in 
1381, the imposition of a new 'poll-tax — that is, a tax ipj^^ 
levied on each individual in the community, brought the Peasants' 
discontent to a head. The Kentish men were among Revolt of 
the freest and most turbulent of Englishmen. There 
was no villeinage in Kent, but nowhere was the indignation at the 
badness of the government so deeply felt. Headed by Wat Tyler, 
the Kentish men refused to pay the poll-tax, rose in revolt, and v^^^ 
marched in great numbers to London. At the same moment dis- 
turbances broke out all over England, as if in obedi-ence to a common 
command. The most formidable were in the eastern counties, 
where the numerous serfs of great abbeys, like Bury St. Edmunds 
and St. Albans, rose against their monastic landlords and demanded 
their enfranchisement. Like the Kentish freemen, the villeins of 
the eastern shires also made their way to London. The rebels soon 
took possession of the capital, and wrought many outrages. They 

murdered some of the king's ministers, including the chancellor,. 

Simon of Sudbury, the archbishop of Canterbury. They burned 
John of Gaunt's house, the Savoy Palace in the Strand, and de- 
clared they would have no king named John. 

5. Richard 11. was only sixteen years old, but he showed a 
courage and resolution that put to shame the weakness of his 
ministers. One day he met the rebels from the ^j^g ^ _ 
eastern counties at Mile End, agreed to give them pression of 
charters of freedom, and persuaded the majority to the revolt, 
go home. The Kentish men, however, remained in arms, and 
constantly perpetrated fresh outrages. Next day Richard went 
with William Walworth, the mayor of London, to treat with 
them in Smithfield. Tyler, the rebel leader, behaved with great 
familiarity, but Richard promised to accept most of his demands. 
Unluckily, one of the king's followers declared that Tyler was the 
greatest thief in Kent, and Tyler sprang upon him with his dagger. 
The mayor strove to protect the courtier, and a scuffle ensued 
between the two, in which Tyler was slain. The rebels drew their 
bows at the king, but Richard, riding up among them, declared, 
" I will be your captain ; come with me into the fields, and you 
shall have aU you ask." His presence of mind saved the situation, 
and gave time for the soldiers to surround the rebels and force*— — , 
them to lay down their arms. The troubles in London were thus 
ended, and all over the country the gentry, plucking up courage, 
set to work to put down the revolt systematically. The cruelties 



232 RICHARD II. OF BORDEAUX [1381- 

worked by the peasants in their brief moment of triumph, were now 
more than revenged on them by their victorious masters. Even 
the king took part in punishing* the rebels. He put John Ball to 
death at St. Albans, and revoked the charters of freedom which 
he had issued on the grounds that they had been obtained by 
violence, and that he had no power to interfere with the lord's 
property over his serfs. When parliament met it approved the 
king's action, and declared that it would never agree to the libera- 
tion of the villeins. However, a little later, the marriage of the 
king to Anne of Bohemia, daughter of the Emperor Charles iv., 
was made an excuse for extending a general pardon to aU the 
rebels. Despite the apparent failure of the peasants, the revolt 
was not entirely without fruit. It taught the government and 
the gentry that it was dangerous to press the tenants too much, < 
and, though for a time it probably made the conditions of the 
villeins worse, it led in the long run to the restriction of viUeinage. 
Many landlords found that it was easier for them to set free their 
peasants and to accept money payment in Keu of their accustomed 
services. Within a hundred years of the Peasants' Revolt, vil- 
leinage had almost disappeared from England. Besides this 
something was done to remedy the misrule against which the 
Kentish men had so loudly protested. John of G-aunt was so 
unpopular that power shpped away quietly from him, and before 
long' he betook himself to Spain, where he strove, with little result, 
to make himself king of Gastile by reason of his marriage with 
Constance, the daug'hter of Peter the Cruel. His failure taught 
the king's council some measure of wisdom and prudence, and the 
country became somewhat better governed in the years succeeding 
the Peasants' Revolt. 

6. The good hopes excited by Richard's courage in 1381 were 
not borne out by the events of the next few years. With plenty 
.of ability, a strong will, and a high courag*e, Richard 
opposition showed a passionate and hasty temper, and a greedi- 
and Thomas ness for power, which soon brought him into collision 
ofGlou- with his nobles. He was self-willed, crafty, and 

revengeful, and his love of pomp led him to waste 
large sums in keeping- up an extravagant court. Distrusting the 
nobles, he gave his chief confidence to courtiers and favourites, 
who carried on the evil traditions of the court party which had 
excited the wrath of the Good Parliament. Prominent among his 
favourites was Robert de Yere, earl of Oxford, whose ancestors had 
held that dignity since the days of Stephen, and whom Richard 



'1 388. J RICHARD II. OF BORDEAUX 233 

made duke of Ireland. His chief minister was the Chancellor, 
Michael de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, whose grandfather had heen a 
Hull merchant, and who had obtained his wealth by trade. Oxford 
and Suffolk soon became very unpopular, partly through their own 
fault, and partly because they were looked upon as the causes of 
the weak government and unconstitutional rule which still went 
on. The greater part of the nobles disliked them exceedingly, and 
joined together to put an end to their power. Thus the party of 
constitutional opposition was reformed to meet the encroachments 
of the court party. Its leader was Thomas of Woodstock, duke of 
Grioucester, the youngest and most capable of the king's uncles. 
For the rest of his life Gloucester withstood Hichard 11. as Thomas 
of Lancaster had withstood Edward 11. 

7. Trouble beg'an in 1386, when parliament demanded the dis- 
missal of the chancellor. Richard ordered parliament to mind its 
own business, and insolently said that he woidd not -,, . . , 
dismiss the meanest scullion from his kitchen to please on the 

it. Thereupon the angry Commons impeached courtiers, 
Suffolk, and forced Richard to submit. A com- loo/. 

mittee of eleven nobles was appointed for a year, with powers so 
extensive that they remind us of the lords ordainers of Edward ii.'s 
time. Richard was compelled to take an oath to accept any 
ordinances that the eleven might devise. For the moment the 
triumph of the opposition seemed complete. Their administration 
threw new vigour into the government. They revived the French 
war, and, in 1387, one of their number, Richard Fitzalan, earl of 
Arundel, won a victory over the French fleet, which saved England 
from a threatened French invasion. 

8. Richard was no weakling like Edward 11., and soon began to 
take steps to win back his power. He released Suffolk, and took 
counsel with his judges as to the lawfulness of the _,. defeat 
committee of eleven. The judges declared that the of the 
commission was illegal because it infringed the royal courtiers, 
prerogative. By his orders the duke of Ireland raised 

an army, and civil war between the king and the opposition broke 
out. However, Richard had acted too hastily in assertion of his 
independence. In December, 1387, the barons scattered Yere's 
troops at Radcot Bridge, over the upper Thames in Oxfordshire. 
When parliament met in February, 1388, the king was once more 
helpless in the hands of the opposition. 

9. The victors showed such ruthlessness that this parliament, 
which was altogether on their side, became known in history as the 



234 RICHARD II. OF BORDEAUX [1388- 

Merciless Parliament. In it an accusation of treason was raised by 
five baronial leaders against Suffolk, Ireland, and otber chief friends 

of tlie king". Tbe charge was technically called an 
The Mepei-^ appeal of treason, and the five lords on that account 
ment and were called th.e Lords Appellant. At their head were 
the Lords Grloucester and Arnndel, the hero of the recent victory 
1 ^88 over the French. The other members were Thomas 

Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, Thomas Mowbray, earl 
of IN'ottingham, and Henry, earl of Derby, eldest son of John of 
Gaunt, who availed himself of his father's absence in Spain to 
identify himself with the traditional policy of his mother's family, 
the old line of earls of Lancaster. Parliament gladly accepted the 
appeal, and the lords condemned the conrtiers as traitors. Suffolk 
and Ireland escaped punishment by flight abroad, but many minor 
royalist partisans were put to death. Richard avoided deposition 
by bending before the storm. He was, however, strictly subjected 
to a council, and in this body the Lords Appellant ruled supreme. 

10. Richard never forgot nor forgave the humiliations inflicted 
on him by the appellants. Experience had, however, shown him the 

uselessness of hasty action, and he c^uietly waited for 
DPudenee ^^® revenge. After more than a year he began to 

reassert himseK. On May 3, 1389, he asked Grloucester 
in the council chamber how old he was, and was told that he was 
twenty-two. " Since I am of age," he replied, " I am old enough 
to rule my people. Hitherto I have lived under governance, now I 
will govern." He then dismissed the appellants from power, but 
he prudently called into ofiice William of Wykeham, the old bishop 
of Winchester, and other magnates who sympathized with the con- 
stitutional party. • With great wisdom he made no attempt to 
recall his exiled friends, and before long restored some of the 
appellants to their places on the council. John of G-aunt now came 
back from Spain. He had learnt discretion by experience, and gave 
his nephew good advice. So judicious was the policy of the crown 
that the appellants had no chance of withstanding Richard's action. 
For the next seven years quiet and good government was main- 
tained at home. Old laws, such as the anti-papal statutes of 
Provisors and Prsemunire were revived, and useful new laws were 
passed. A truce was made with the French and Scots, so that 
England enjoyed peace, abroad as well as at home. 

11. During this period Richard's first wife, Anne of Bohemia, 
died without children. So friendly now were Richard's relations 
with France that, in 1396, he married Isabella, daughter of 



-1397.1 RICHARD II. OF BORDEAUX 235 

Cliarles vi., the French king, and made a truce for twenty-eight 
years. Though the new queen was only a child of seven, French 
influence henceforth became strong in Richard's 
councils. Always anxious to be a despot, Richard fpuee and 
became eager to abandon constitutional courses and the French 
make Jiimself as thoroughly master of his subjects as marriage, 
was his father-in-law, the French king. 

12. The party of the Lords Appellant seemed hopelessly broken 
up. John of Gaunt's influence had brought Henry of Derby round 
to the court party, and N^ottingham also had de- jj^g royalist 
Verted his former friends. Gloucester, Warwick, and reaction, 
Arundel still persevered in their ancient policy, and 1397. 
with them was associated Arundel's younger brother, Thomas 
Fitzalan. archbishop of Canterbury^ commonly called Archbishop 
Arundel. After nine years, E-ichard's wrath against the appellants 
was stUl unsatisfied, and in 1397, he thought he was strong enough 
to wreak his long-deferred vengeance. Rumours that Gloucester 
was plotting against him gave Richard an excuse for action. He 
suddenly arrested Gloucester, "Warwick, and Arundel, and a group 
of royalist barons, one of whom was Nottingham, appealed the 
three prisoners of treason. Their trials took place in the parlia- 
ment which met in September. This body was carefully packed 
by the king, and overawed by a body of two thousand archers from 
Cheshire, wearing the king's cognisance of the white hart. The 
three lords were condemned as traitors, and Arundel was beheaded. 
His brother the archbishop was banished. Warwick was pardoned 
in return for an abject submission, and Gloucester was privately 
murdered at Calais, where he had been confined under Nottingham's 
charge. The acts of the Merciless Parliament were repealed, and 
the estates of the traitors divided among the king's friends. The 
turncoats, Derby and Nottingham, were rewarded for their com- 
plaisance by being made dukes of Hereford and Norfolk. The 
royalist restoration was completed at a second session of the 
parliament, held at Shrewsbury, when the king was granted a 
revenue for life, and a committee of eighteen persons appointed 
to deal, after the dissolution, with petitions which had not been 
answered during the session. Richard's enemies saw in this latter 
step an effort of the king to carry on indefinitely the powers of 
tliis subservient parliament through the committee of eighteen, 
and believed that he was resolved to do without parliaments for the 
future. 

13. Richard's position was now so menacing that the new duke 



236 RICHARD II. OF BORDEAUX [1398- 

of Norfolk took the alarm. He told Hereford tliat E/icliard had 
not yet forgiven them their share in the work of the appellants, and 
• h- m'8'®<i \iXin. to unite with him against the king. Here- 
merit of ford told the whole story to Richard, and Norfolk de- 

Norfolk and clared that it was all an invention of Hereford's. A 
^^q| deadly q^narrel henceforth divided the two old associates, 

and they were ordered to prove their truthfulness by 
trial by battle. The fig-ht was arranged to take place at Coventry 
on September 12, 1398. Jnst before the duel began, the king stopped 
the fight and banished both combatants, Hereford for ten years, 
Norfolk for life. But while Norfolk was treated with every severity' 
Hereford was still regarded with comparative favour. His term of 
exile was cut down to six years, and he was promised that, in the 
event of his father dying, he should forthwith inherit the duchy 
of Lancaster. . Thus even the appellants who had deserted their old 
side came within the scope of the king's vengeance. Richard's 
triumph was now complete. He ruled Eng-land with the help of 
flatterers and favourites, and declared " that the laws were in his 
mouth or in his breast, and that he alone could chang'e the statutes 
of his realm." His Cheshire archers maltreated his subjects at 
their will, and a veritable reign of terror proclaimed the reality 
of the new despotism. When John of Gaunt died, early in 1399, 
Richard and the committee of parliament withdrew the permission 
granted to Hereford to receive his father's succession in his 
absence. 

14. So secure did Richard now feel himself, that in May, 1399, 
he crossed over to Ireland, and busied himself with a vigorous 
The Lan- attempt to restore the waning power of England in 
castpian that island. In July, Henry of Hereford and Arch- 

revolution bishop Arundel landed with a small force at Ravenspur, 
on the Humber. Henry declared that he had only 
come to claim his duchy and to drive away the favourites who had 
taught the king to play the despot. Many of the northern lords 
flocked to his standard, among them being Henry Percy, recently 
made earl of Northumberland, the old ally of John of Gaunt. Henry 
then marched southwards with a constantly increasing army. Before 
long he was joined by the regent, his uncle the duke of York. He 
captured Richard's chief ministers at Bristol and put them to death. 
With his growing power the invader enlarged his ambitions, and 
began openly to aim at the crown. Meanwhile Richard returned 
from Ireland and marched through North Wales to Conway. These 
tidings brought Henry northwards again to Chester. But Richard 



-1 399. J RICHARD II. OF BORDEAUX 237 

had alienated every class of his subjects as signally as Edward 11. 
had done. Finding- that he had no backing, he submitted to his 
cousin at Flint, whence he was taken to London as a prisoner. 
Parliament then met, and Richard was forced to surrender the 
throne. Next day his abdication was read in parliament, which 
had assembled in a great hall before an empty throne. Henry of 
Lancaster sat in his place as duke, but before long he rose and 
claimed the throne, as being descended from Henry iii., and 
" through the right which God had given him by conquest, when 
the realm was nearly undone for default of governance." Parlia- 
ment rapturously applauded tliis, and he sat down on the throne as 
Henry iv. Next year it was given out that Richard had refused 
his food, and died of self-inflicted starvation in his prison at 
Pontefract. There is not much doubt but that his end was 
hastened by violence, but the circumstances of his murder were so 
obscure that his partisans long believed that he was stiU aHve, and 
an impostor who assumed his name was for a time treated as 
Richard by the Scottish enemies of England. 



CHAPTER VI 

BRITAIN IN THE THIRTEENTH AND 
FOURTEENTH CENTURIES 

1. In tlie "beginning of the thirteentli century the Angevin 
despotism was at the highest point of its power. It was "broken 

down by the calamities of the reign of John, and re- 
civili^atl^on placed by something quite different during the reigns 

of John's son and grandson. The fourteenth century 
saw the working out in detail of the principles laid down in the days 
of Henry iii. and Edward i. The result of this process was that 
England became a national state, governed by a strong monarch, 
who was in his turn controlled by a popular and representative 
parliament. The period which we now have to study is that of the 
formation of the English nation and of the English constitution. It 
was in these days when the state of society which we call mediaeval 
reached its culminating point. I^ot only were the state and the 
constitution as vigorous as the times permitted : mediaeval religion, 
science, literature, life, trade, and society alike attained their 
highest perfection. 

2. In matters of state the king stiU governed the country, and 
was expected to use all the power which the constitution gave him. 
The k'ns- ^^^ ministers of the crown were chosen by him, and 

were responsible to him alone. It was only when a 
weak or incompetent monarch was on the throne that the barons 
took the executive power out of his hands and transferred it to such 
a body as the Fifteen of 1258, the Lords Ordainers, or the Lords 
Appellant. Yet even an Edward i. was expected to rule with some 
regard to the opinion of his subjects, and in particular the views of 
the mighty barons who claimed to be the natural-born counsellors 
of the crown, and its partners and fellow- workers in determining 
the policy of the nation. After the reforms of Edward i. had de- 
stroyed the political power of feudalism, the barons found it in- 
creasingly expedient to work through the means of parliament, 
238 



I2I6J THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES 239 

It is as tlie leaders of public opinion as expressed by parliament 
that the nobles now held the great position which they still 
retained in the English state. 

3. Farliatnent in the early days of Henry iii, was merely 
another name for the Norman G-reat Council of the tenants-in- 
chief. Since the days of Simon of Montfort it became -j-hfe Parlia- 
nsual to strengthen the baronial element by associating ment of 
with it the representations of the shires and boroughs. ^^® Three 
After Edward i.'s time the only body to which the 

name of parliament rightly belonged was the representative 
assembly of the three estates, and after 1322 no law was regarded 
as valid unless it had been approved by this body. By the reign of 
Edward in. the lower clergy had ceased regularly to send their 
representatives to parliament. This made it easy for the higher 
clergy, the bishops, and abbots, to take their places along with the 
secular magnates. The result was the creation of the modern 
House of Lords, which thus represented both the estate of the 
nobles and, to some extent, the estate of the clergy. The third 
estate now exclusively formed the House of Commons. Cut off 
from the assembly of the nation, the lower clergy were content to 
meet in their clerical assemblies, which were summoned for each 
province by the archbishops of Canterbury and York. These pro- 
vincial synods were called the convocations of Canter- 
bury and York. The king used them to raise taxes ^ion, 
from the clergy, but properly speaking they were no 
part of parliament. So long as the king got enough money from 
the olergy, he was indifferent whether it was voted him by an 
ecclesiastical or a political assembly. 

4. The House of Lords of the fourteenth century consisted of 
the lords spiritual and temporal. The former included aU the 
<irclibishops and bishops, and a considerable number of 

abbots and priors, the heads of the more important ff ds^^ 
monasteries. For most of the middle ages the clerical 
members formed a majority of the House. The lay peers were, up 
to the reign of Edward in,, either earls or barons. The earls were 
seldom more than a dozen in number, and were in nearly every 
case men of vast wealth and territorial influence. They were the 
natural leaders of the baronage, and were still looked upon as 
officials as well as mere dignitaries. The lay barons of the four- 
teenth century were less than a hundred in number, and were 
always tending to become less numerous. Both earldoms and 
baronies had become by this time strictly hereditary. Under 



240 THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES [1216- 

Edward iii. new grades of tlie peerage were added, such, as duke, 
tnarquis,- and viscount. This tended somewhat to depress the 
dignity of the earl, as he now ranked after the duke and the 
marquis, and the number of earldoms became somewhat greater. 

5. The Souse of Cotnmons consisted of two Tcnights of the 
shire, chosen by the county court of each English county, and 

of two citizens or burgesses, elected by the courts of 
The House their respective cities and boroughs. The two great 

palatine counties of Cheshire and Durham sent no 
representatives, as they were so fully under the control of their 
earl and bishop that they were for most purposes outside England 
altogether. Under Edward iii. Lancashire also became a palatine 
county, but having already sent knights and burgesses to parlia- 
ment, it continued to do so as before. Wales, both the Principality 
and the March, was also unrepresented in parliament, save on two 
occasions under Edward 11. Though ruled by the English crown, 
Wales was no part of the English realm. In practice the sheri:ffis, 
who returned both the knights and the burgesses, had a good deal 
to do with determining which individuals should be chosen. The 
kiag decided which boroughs should be asked to appoint repre- 
sentatives, and as the sending of members was thought a burden 
rather than a privilege, towns were often anxious to avoid having to 
make an election. The result, was that the number of boroughs was 
constantly fluctuating. As parliament became stronger, it suited the 
king's interest to summon burgesses from small places under his 
control, as he had power of influencing members so selected. Thus, 
even in early times there were many parliamentary boroughs which 
were not places of any importance. Both counties and boroughs 
paid wages to support the members they sent to parliament. The 
knights of the shire, who in practice represented the country gentle- 
men or smaller landliolders, were the more important element of the 
House of Commons. They had greater wealth, a higher social 
position, and were more interested in public events. The citizens 
and burgesses were generally content to follow their lead. But even 
the knights were not always capable of independent action. As 
a rule, the opposition to the crown was stronger among the Lords 
than the Commons, and the Commons were largely in the habit of 
looking up to the peers for guidance. This is seen very clearly in 
the debates of the Grood Parliament of 1376. 

6, The powers of parliament were very considerable. It was 
on the petition of the estates that the king drew up the statutes 
or acts of parliament, so that no new law could be promulgated 



#1399.] THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES 24 1 

except on tlieir initiative. The Commons were especially con- 
cerned in tke finances of tke nation. As most taxes were paid 
by them, they were naturally anxious that they should 
have control over the king's expenses. By the four- p^^v ''^e ♦. 
teenth century, it was considered unlawful for the king 
to raise general taxes which had not been granted by the Commons, 
though the clergy in their convocation also granted money payable 
by the clergy only. The Commons also had the right of petitioning 
the crown and unfolding all their grievances and complaints against 
the king's government. The Lords joined in most of this work, but 
they also exercised judicial functions, in which the Commons 
refused to take any part. A wise king took care to keep on friendly 
terms with his parliament, and even strong rulers were often forced 
to give up power that they cherished to please it. 

7. The old institutions of the tweKth century still went 
on. though with diminished vitality. Great Councils of the nobles 
still sometimes assembled, but as they could not 

grant money, they were of little use to the king, council ^^ 
More important than these occasional assemblies was 
the permanent council of the king, called sometimes the Consilium 
Ordiimrium, and later the Privy Council. This was a standing 
body of the king's ministers, judges, courtiers, and personal 
friends, which accompanied him in his constant journeys, and 
gave him advice as to the conduct of affairs of state. As many 
of its members were great barons and bishops, the king's council 
eould sometimes take up a fairly independent line, though it was 
mainly a consultative rather than a directing body. With the 
help of his council the king governed the country. As time went 
on the council began to encroach upon the powers of jjarKament. 
In particular, it exercised considerable judicial as well as adminis- 
trative authority. Though it was not supposed to legislate, it 
published ordinances that every one had to obey, and which were 
laws in everything but name. An able king made his council 
reflect his own will. Under a weak king or during a minority, 
the council became the battle-ground of contending factions, and 
acted very much as it liked. 

8. The law courts took their modern shape by the time of 
Edward i. There were three common law courts, the King's 
Bench, the Court of Common Pleas, and the Court of Exchequer, 
The first and third of these were descended from the Curia Regis 
and Exchequer of Norman times, but they had ceased to be chiefly 
concerned with politics and finance, and were now mainly busy 



242 THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES [1216- 

with holding trials and pronouncing" judgments. Cases which, the 
common law could not deal with, or cases where the coiiimon law 
was too harsh and narrow, were referred to the Court of Chancery 
under the Chancellor. This gradually became what was called a 
Court of Tjquity, wherein the rigid doctrines of the common 
lawyers were brought into harmony with men's natural sense of 
justice. All through this period the lawyers were powerful, rich, 
and numerous. In the thirteenth century many lawyers in the 
king's courts were clerg-ymen. By the fourteenth the lawyers had 
become a lay isrofession, with a strong corporate spirit and fixed 
traditions of their own. G-reat schools of law grew up in London 
called the Inns of Court, which took the place of the universities as 
places of study for English law. Besides the king's lawyers and 
courts there were still the lawyers and courts of the Church, which - 
exercised such extensive powers that the king and his lawyers 
looked upon them with the utmost suspicion. 

9. The religious and intellectual movements of the twelfth 
century yielded their finest fruits during the period now before 
The Church ^^' ^^^ Church was at the height of its power 
and the and influence during the thirteenth century. Though 
Papacy. many individual churchmen, like Langton or Grosse- 
teste, were patriotic Englishmen, the Church as an institution 
was not national. It was the chief representative of that cosmo- 
politan ideal which still looked upon the nations of the civilijzed 
world as part of a single Christian commonwealth. Of this great 
power the pope was the recognized head, and for nations like 
England the only head, since the power of the emperor had 
never been real outside G-ermany and Italy, and after the fall of 
Frederick 11. had ceased to be effective even in those countries. 
The pope was the universal hishop of Christendom, and for 
England he was, for most of the thirteenth century, the feudal 
overlord as well. Though his unlimited authority, especially in 
politics, at last provoked a strong reaction, there was no one at this 
period who ventured to question his ecclesiastical omnipotence. 

10. A great religious revival in the early years of the thirteenth 

century emphasized the strength and authority which the Church 

-, _ . still exercised over men's minds. Like all mediaeval 
St. Francis ... ,.,,-,,■,■, « -, -, 

and the religious movements, it took the shape 01 a new develop- 

Mendieant ment of monasticism. Yast as had been the influence 

piars. ^£ ^2^^ Cistercians and Regular Canons in the monastic 

reformation of the tweKth century (see p. 154), the new orders had 

not escaped the dangers against which their rules had been a 



-I399-] THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES 243 

protest, and their very wealth and authority exposed them to all 
the temptations of pride and worldliness. Against all the evil 
tendencies of the times a vigorous reaction was embodied in the life 
and work of St. Francis of Assisi. A young Italian gentleman, 
Francis forsook his father's heritage and devoted his life to the 
care of the poor, the sick, and the neglected. He gave out that he 
had wedded the lady Poverty as his bride, and taught the followers 
who soon g-athered round him that they must literally live, like 
Christ and the apostles, lives of absolute self-renunciation. He 
thus became the founder of a new order, to which he gave 
the name of the Friars, or brothers, or, as he called them in 
his humility, the 3Iinorites, or Lesser Brethren. The fame of 
their leader also caused the saint's followers to be called Franciscans, 
while the rough garb of undyed wool which they wore also led the 
people to speak of them as the Grey Friars. Francis' first principle 
was that of absolute poverty. The monks had taken the vow of 
poverty, but they interpreted it as meaning individual poverty, 
and the monastery could hold as much land as it could get, though 
each monk could possess nothing. To Francis this was not enough, 
and he ordered his followers so to understand their vow that they 
were bound to corporate as well as individual poverty. They were 
therefore called the Mendicant Friars, because, having no goods of 
their own, they gained their bread by begging from the faithful. 
So beautiful was the character of St. Francis, and so wonderful the 
work of his followers, that many other orders of friars were formed 
upon the model which he suggested. The chief of these was the 
Order of Preachers, called the Black Friars from the black hood 
they wore over their white dress, or the Dominicans, from their 
founder St. Dominic, a Spanish canon regular, who had devoted 
his life to preaching the doctrines of the Church and winning 
back the heretic and the infidel to its fold. Inspired by Francis 
and Dominic, the Mendicant orders worked a wondrous change for 
the better in the religious life of Europe. 

11. In 1221 the Dominicans first came to England, and in 1224 
they were followed by the Franciscans. They established their 
first convents at London and Oxford, and rapidly spread ,j,j^g Pran- 
all over the country. Their piety, devotion, and ciscans and 
sincerity soon won for them numerous disciples among Dominicans 
all ranks of Eng-lishmen. They laboured for the 
salvation of souls, the care of sickness, and the relief of distress. 
They ingratiated themselves with the rich as well as with the poor. 
Henry in. and Edward i. selected friars as their confessors, and 



244 THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES [1216- 

Simon of Montfort and (^rosseteste were among- their ckief 
supporters. A special field for their labour was the crowded 
suburbs of the greater towns, where the people lived in ignorance, ' 
squalor, and vice. They erected in the chief towns their spacious 
but plain churches, adapted for preaching to large congregations. 
Unlike the monks, who withdrew themselves from the world, they 
lived in the world and tried to make it better. They had many 
enemies, as for example the lazy parish clergy whose work they 
did, and the monks and canons who envied their zeal and popularity. 
As time went on they fell away from their early activity, and often 
became corrupt. Yet down to the time of the Reformation the 
friars remained the chief teachers of religion toi^he poor. Hardly 
less important was their influence on the thought and learning 
of their age. A large proportion of the professors of theology at 
the universities were Mendicant Friars. 

12. The universities, which began in the twelfth century, 
became exceedingly flourishing in the thirteenth. In the reign of 

Henry iii., Oxford became one of the chief centres of 
vepsities study in Europe, and a second English university had 

arisen at Cambridge, though this was less important 
than Oxford for the rest of the Middle Ages. Paris still remained 
the greatest university of the West, and many English scholars 
still studied there. AH classes of society were represented among 
the students. There were rich noblemen living in their own 
houses with a band of servants, while many scholars were so poor 
that they had to beg for their living. There was plenty of 
freedom- and activity, but little order and discipline. All the 
scholars ranked as clerks, and had the privileges of clergy ; but 
this did not prevent them rioting, drinking, and fighting with 
the townsfolk. All lectures were in Latin, and the teachers were 
those students who had completed their courses, and so became 
doctors or masters. There were five faculties, or branches of 
study — Theology, Civil Law, Canon Law, Medicine, and Arts. 
Most scholars began with arts, that is, grammar, philosophy, and 
mathematics. It took seven years' study before a student could 
become a Master or Doctor of Arts, and then he was compelled to 
stay for a time at the university and teach others. Some Masters 
of Arts also studied in one of the other or higher faculties. 

13, After the coming of the friars, Oxford became much more 
important than before. In particular, the friars devoted themselves 
to the study of theology, which worldly men neglected in favour of 
law and medicine because xnese opened up better prospects of success 



-I399-] THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES 2d,^ 

in their careers. The chief thinkers in philosophy and theology were 
called schoohnen. Among them a large proportion came from 
Britain, such as Alexander Hales, Duns Scotus, William 
of Ockham, and Robert Kilwardby and John Peckham, schoolmen 
the two Mendicant friars who became in succession arch- 
bishops of Canterbury under Edward i. The example of Kilwardby 
and Peckham shows how the Universities opened up brilliant 
positions for poor men of ability. Never were men of learning more 
powerful and influential than in the great days of the schoolmen. 

14. As time went on, rich men gave lands and money to the 
universities to help forward poor students and unpopular studies. 
In particular, small societies were set up within the 
universities called colleges, where buildings were 

erected in which scholars could be supported while devoting* them- 
selves to study. The first important college was Merton College at 
Oxford, set up by Walter of Merton, chancellor of Henry iii. In 
the fourteenth century there were many such foundations, both at 
Oxford and Cambridge. By this time the universities were losing 
some of their first energy and freedom, but they stiU played a con- 
siderable part in the life of the nation. It was at Oxford that John 
Wycliffe first taught those new views about religion which were to 
make so great a stir all over Christendom. But the times were not 
ripe for so thorough- going a reformer as Wycliffe, and the end of 
the fourteenth century saw the Church restored to much of its 
former power. 

15. Gothic architecture, like the universities, began in the 
twelfth century, and attained its full glory in the thirteenth. At 
first the English had built much upon the lines of Gothic 
those who had first created the Gothic style in France, archi- 

but under Henry iii. English Gothic struck out ways tecture. 
of its own. The so-called Early English fasliion of building, 
with its lancet windows, clustered shafts, square east ends, and 
delicacy of detail is best exemplified in Salisbury 
Cathedral, which altogether dates from the reign £^£.1151, 
of Henry iii. A comparison between it and the 
cathedral of Amiens, the chief work of contemporary French art, 
will well illustrate the difference of plan and construction between 
EngKsh and French Gothic of the best period. Yet the French 
tastes of Henry iii. have given us an opportunity of studying the 
French style in our own land. His favourite foundation of West- 
minster Abbey reproduced on EngKsh soil the towering loftiness, 
the vaulted roofs, the short choir, and the ring of absidal chapels 




SOME FORMS OF MEDIAEVAL, ARCHITECTURE. 

a. Anglo-Saxon. b. Norman. c. Early English, 

d. Geometrical Decorated, e. Flowing Decorated. f. Perpendicular, 

(^From Parker's " Glossary of Architecture," 1850.) 



-1399.] THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES 247 

of tlie great FrencL. minsters. As the century advanced some of 
the fasliions of the French builders, notably as regards "window- 
tracery, were taken up in England. The early days of 
Edward i. mark the beginning of the so-called Decorated ' 

style. The earlier form of this, characterized by large windows 
adorned with elaborate tracery marked out in geometrical patterns, 
is well exemplified in the angel choir of Lincoln, built about 1280 
to contain the shrine of St. Hugh, who himself erected the westerly 
part of the choir of the same cathedral. Later Decorated is called 
flowing, because the patterns of the window-tracery take wavy or 
flowing lines, such as can be seen in the nave of York minster. 
In Exeter Cathedral, which is almost entirely of the Decorated 
period, we can best study the development in succession of both the 
geometrical and decorated types of tracery. Side by side with these 
changes, the building as a whole became more elaborately decorated, 
and the mouldings became enriched with carved flowers and delicate 
carved leafwork. As time went on the decoration became exces- 
sive, and masked or impaired the solidity of the constructive parts. 

When ornament thus became used for its own sake, 

And PeP" 
the spirit of Gothic architecture was beginning to pendicular. 

decay. By the reign of Edward iii. the last and most 
peculiarly English type began. This is called the Perpendicular 
style, and is characterized by the great iise made of right angles 
and upright lines, and in particular by the rigid and straig'ht lines 
of its window tracery. The arches became gradually flattened 
instead of pointed ; • the windows and doors became square-headed ; 
and walls were enriched by flat panelling- instead of the arcading of 
the earlier styles. The earliest examples of Perpendicular are to 
be seen in the choir of Gloucester Cathedral and the nave of 
Winchester Cathedral, both built under Edward iii., the latter by 
William of Wykeham. It is a noticeable feature of both these 
buildings that their architects did not erect them afresh, but recased 
and adapted the old Norman buildings, toning down and hiding 
the massive romanesque structure by their new work. 

16. Castle-building followed similar changes. The stern 
simplicity of the ^NTorman castle had already given place to the 
newer style which began with Chateau- Gaillard in Normandy, and 
which is seen in its perfection in the castles such as The eon- 
Carnarvon, Conway, Harlech, and Beaumaris, erected centpie 
by Edward i. to ensure the subjection of the moun- castle^ 
taineers of North Wales. The castles of this period were often built 
after what is called the concentric fashion, and were characterized by 



248 THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES [1216- 

STiccessive lines of defence, each, roug-hly radiating" from a common 
centre. The keep, the special feature of IJ^orman strongholds, was 
suppressed altogether, and replaced by many lofty towers erected 
along the lines of the successive circuits. The most perfect ex- 
ample of the type is perhaps found in the castle of Caerphilly, erected 
by Grilbert, earl of Gloucester, Edward i.'s rival and son-in-law, in his 
Marcher lordship of Grlamorgan. After this period castle-building, 
unlike church-building, became much less frequent. By the four- 
teenth century England had become so peaceable that noblemen 
had no long-er any need to erect castles to live in, but could look to 
comfort and convenience as well. as to safety from attack. The 
improved condition of society is seen in the greater stateliness and 
beauty of domestic and civil architecture, which were now far more 
important than in previous ages. 

17. Arms and armour became, like buildings, more complicated 
and costly. Great pains were taken to perfect the machines by 

which castles were assaulted, and ponderous instru- 
tpain and ments, such as the trebuchet, could hurl huge stones a 
the be- great distance by means of an elaborate system of 

ginnings pulleys and counterpoises. Before the middle of the 

fourteenth century the use of gunpowder became 
known, and the earliest artillery was designed. These cannons were 
cumbrous and ineffective weapons, which, if sometimes dragged 
about on a- campaign, as at Crecy, were more often used for siege 
purposes than in the open field. Armour changed greatly in 
character during the fourteenth century, as gradually solid plates 
'of steel supplemented the chain-mail of the thirteenth century. 

The knight of the age of Edward iii. covered his 
armoup ^^^^ ^^ mail with a breastplate of richly embossed and 

decorated steel, and wore brassards, cuissards,jambards, 
and other plates of metal to protect his arms and legs. Over his 
armour he still donned a surcoat, which, having been long and 
loose in the thirteenth century, became short and close-fitting 
about the time of the advent of plate-armour. On this and on 
his shield was embroidered or painted the knight's arms or device. 

Every knightly house possessed by the fourteenth 

century its hereditary arms, and a special science 
called heraldry grew up, which explained the differences between 

the arms of various noble families. The tournaments, 
ments which, though condemned by the Church, remained 

very popular, kept the knight in exercise, and gave 
him chances of glory even in peace time. After Bannockbuj-n 



-1 399-1 THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES 249 

and Crecy had rung" the knell of the ancient fashion of fighting 
on horseback in the field, the old-fashioned tilting on horse- 
hack with lances was still practised in the tournament. The 
tiltyard did much to spread the chivalry which was chivalrv 
so marked a feature of the age of Edward iii. This and the 
was further kept up by the orders of Jcmghthood, Orders of 
of which Edward's Order of the Garter was the first Knighthood, 
example. All knights belonged to an international brotherhood 
of arms, and if their pride of caste made them often contemptuous 
of the common people, it did good service in promoting kindly 
feeling between kings, barons, and simple country gentlemen. 
There was no royal caste in the fourteenth century, and the 
country squire, who was a knight, had much in common with his 
brother knight, the king or the great earl. Yet social distinctions 
no longer counted for much in serious warfare. The archer won 

battles more than the mail-clad knight and squire. 

. o o- Apcheps 

Unlike the man-at-arms, the bowman went to the fight 

unprotected except by his steel cap and leather jerkin, and save for 
his long bow of yew and his arrows, a yard long, tipped with bright 
steel, his only weapons were his sword and buckler. The mobility 
thus gained compensated to some extent for the lack of protection 
afforded by body-armour. 

18. Much that we have described was common to all Western 
Christendom. Every country had its representative system of 
estates, its king and barons, its lawyers, churchmen, 
and friars. The universities knew no distinction of mopolitan 
nationality, and Gothic architecture, the baronial and the 
castle, the equipment of the warrior, and the brother- J^ational 
hood of chivalry were shared equally by every nation 
with which Englishmen were brought into contact. Even the 
national movement was common to most of the kingdoms of the 
West, and the thirteenth century saw the growth of the French 
and Spanish as well as of the English and Scottish nations. Yet 
the result of the national movement was to separate one people 
from another, and with the fourteenth century a sharp line of 
demarcation began to be drawn between England and her neigh- 
bours. The English and French states, very similar in the days 
of Edward i. and Philip the Fair, became quite different under 
Edward iii. and the early Valois kings. The common English 
of the days of the Hundred Years' War hated the French with 
a hatred more deadly than was found among the cosmopolitan 
knightly class that took the lead in the fighting against the 



250 THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES [1216- 

national enemy. In such, circumstances, thougL. the "bilingual 
hahit long clave to the upper classes in England, the result of the 
process was in the long run the restoration of English to its 
position hefore the Conquest as the everyday language of all 
classes of Englishmen from king to peasant. From this flowed 
the marvellous development of English literature, which was one 
of the great features of the age of Edward iii. 

19. The thirteenth century was not a very literary age. 
Though many hooks were written by Englishmen in Latin, French, 

and English, few of them had any serious pretensions 
rf t ^^ high literary rank. The grave Latin treatises 

produced hy the scholars of the Universities was almost 
entirely destitute of any literary charm. It was a great age for 
science and philosophy, and men of learning cared nothing for the 
form of the matter that they produced in their books. The finest 
Latin literature was that of the chroniclers, and especially of the 
series of illustrious historians who made the Benedictine abbey of 
St. Albans the most continuous centre of historical composition in 

Britain. Of these, the best is Matthew Paris, who 
PaHs^^^ wrote the history of England up to 1258. He is, 

perhaps, the greatest historian of the Middle Ages, 
having a vivid though prolix style, a bold and independent judg- 
ment, an insatiable curiosity, and a sturdy English patriotism that 
makes him the forerunner of the national movements of the days 
of three Edwards. As the schoolmen became more powerful, even 
historical literature began to decline, and the chroniclers of the 
reign of Edward i. are but sorry successors to those of the days of 
Henry 11. and Henry iii. Things became better under Edward iii.^ 
but for the most artistic presentations of that famous reign, we 
must go to those who wrote in French rather than in Latin. 

20. ]^ever was French more used or better written in England 
than in the days of Henry iii., in which reign French words first 

began to be used freely in the English language, which 
litepatupe since the !N"orman conquest had stubbornly refused 

them admission. Moreover, public proclamations and 
official letters, hitherto mainly issued in Latin, are often published 
in French, which by the time of the Hundred Years' War began to- 
rival Latin as the international tongue of the statesmen, diploma- 
tists, and lawyers. It also remained the most usual language in 
which men composed the light literature of song, romance, and 
chronicle, which was written to amuse the upper classes. The most 
vivid description of Edward iil's reign was written in French by 



-1399-] THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES 25 1 

the Hainault clerk, John Froissart, who spent many years at the 
court of his patroness and compatriot, Queen Philij)pa. Froissart 
had no care for accuracy, and was blind to the deeper John 
movements of the time ; but in wealth of detail, in Froissart, 
literary charm and colour, and in genial appreciation 1 333-? 1404. 
of the externals of his age, he was unsurpassed. !N"owhere else can 
be read so vivid a picture of the courts, battles, tournaments, and 
feasts of the knights and barons of the Hundred Years' War. 

21. English literature was mainly represented during the thir- 
teenth century by a great mass of translations and adaptations, 
which showed that there was a public ready to read 
vernacular books, but not at home in the French literature 
language. Few continuous works of high merit were in the 
as yet written in the native tongue, but much evidence ^^"ii'teenth 
of deep feeling and»^ careful art lay hidden away in 
half -forgotten and anonymous lyrics, satires, and romances. The 
language in which these works were written was steadily becoming 
more like our modern Eng'lish. The dialectical differences became 
less acute ; the inflections began to drop away ; the vocabulary 
gradually absorbed a large romance (French and Latin) element, and 
the prosody abandoned the forms of the West Saxon period for 
measures that show a close connection with the con- 
temporary poetry of France. With the age of literature 
Edward in., the time of triumphant English nation- in the 
ality, a really great literature in English was written, fourteenth 
While the Frenchman Froissart was the chief ^^^' 

literary figure of Edward iii.'s court in the middle period of his 
reign, his place during the last few years of it was occupied by 
Geoffrey Chaucer, the first real poet of the English Geoffrey- 
literary revival. The son of a substantial London Chaucer, 
viatner, Chaucer held minor offices at court, took part •* 1340-1400. 
in the several campaigns of the Hundred Years' War, and served 
in diplomatic missions to Italy, Flanders, and elsewhere. His early 
poems reflected the modes and metres of the current French tradition 
in an English dress. His Italian mission may have first introduced 
him to the famous Italian poets — Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio — 
whose works he admired and copied. In his Canterhury Tales, he 
produced the most consummate work which any Englishman ever 
wrote before ' the Elizabethan age. Though he was a court poet, 
writing to amuse lords and ladies, he depicted every phase of English 
life with unrivalled insight, knowledge of character, delicacy of 
humour, and profound literary art. 



252 THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES [1216- 

22. Chaucer wrote in the tongue of the southern Midlands, the 
region wherein were situated his native London,the two Universities, 
_, , the habitual residences of the court, the chief seats of 
ginnings parliaments and councils, and the most frequented 
of standard resorts of commerce. The later Middle English which 
English. j^Q used prepared the way for the Modern English of 
the sixteenth century. For the first time, a standard English 
language, the King's English, came into being, which largely dis- 
placed for literary purposes the local dialects which had hitherto 
been the natural vehicles for writing. The dialect of the south, 
the descendant of the tongue of the West Saxon court, became the 
language of peasants and artisans. That a greater future remained 
to the idiom of the north country was due to its becoming the 
speech of a free Scotland, the lang-uage in which John Barbour, 
archdeacon of Aberdeen, commemorated for the court of David 11. 
and Robert 11. the exploits of Robert Bruce and the heroes of 
the Scottish war of independence. The unity of England thus 
found another notable expression in the oneness of the popular 
speech, while the development of the northern dialect into the 
Lowland Scottish of a separate kingdom showed that, if England were 
united, English-speaking Britain remained divided against itself. 

23. Froissart and Chaucer show us the brig-ht sides of the 
Eng-land of Edward iii. The social and economic troubles of the 
William years of strain and stress that succeeded the Black 
Langland, Death are shown in the Vision of Piers Flowmcun, the 
1330-1400. -vv^ork of WiUiam Langland, a man from the March 
of Wales, who spent his life mainly in London, and wrote in the 
language of the city of his adoption. His vigorous and purposeful 
verses set closely before us the miseries of the poor, the corruptions 
of the Church, the greediness of the lords and ladies, the unrest and 
discontent of the labouring classes, and the bitter indignation of 
the masses against the old social order which found its fullest 
expression in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Though written in 
archaic diction and in the ancient alliterative metre, Langland, 
«ven more than Chaucer, reflected the modernity of his age. A 
John Wy- still more modern note was sounded by John Wycliffe, 
cliffe, 1384, the first Englishman to lead a revolt against the 
^eeinninff teachings of the mediaeval Church. Wycliffe's early 
of modern writings were in Latin, and are altogether technical 
English and scholastic in their character. When, after the 
ppose. outbreak of the papal schism, he became an avowed 
heretic, he saw that it was not enough to have doctors and thinkers 



-I399-] THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES 253 

on liis side, but that lie must make an appeal to the people of Eug-- 
land. Accordingly he began to employ the English tongue, and, 
Yorkshireman though he was, he wrote in the southern language of 
London and Oxford rather than in the dialect of his native north. 
In pithy vigorous tracts and sermons, he strove to take the English 
people into partnership with him in his war against the old Church. 
Above all. he inspired his followers to undertake a translation of 
the Bible into English, and probably carried out a part of the work 
with his own hands. Wycliffe's English Bible, extensively cir- 
culated by his poor priests and other Lollard teachers, became 
widely read and eagerly studied. It stands to English prose as 
Chaucer's poetry stands to English verse. With these works the 
future of the English tongue was finally fixed, and in them the 
national movement of the fourteenth century found its fullest and 
completest expression. 

Books recommended for the Further Study of the Period 

1216-1399. 

The first four reigns of this period are covered by Tout's History of 
England, 1216-1377 (Longmans' ' Political History of England," vol. iii.), and 
that of Richard ii.'s, by Oman's J^istory of England, 1377-1485 ("Political 
Historj' of England," vol. iv.). Stubbs' Constitutional History, vol. ii., 
exactly includes this portion of our history. Ecclesiastical Histor}' may be 
studied the later part of W. R. W. Stephens' History already referred to, 
and its continuation W. W. Capes' History of the English Church in the 
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. For particular points the following may 
be consulted : G. W. Prothero's, or Charles Be'mont's Simon de Montfort 
(the latter in French) ; Little's Mediceral Wales; 0. M. Edwards' Wales 
(" Story of the Nations") ; Tout's Edward I. (Macmillan's "Twelve English 
Statesmen'"); Warburton's Age of Edtvard III. (Longmans' " Epochs of 
Modern History"); R. L. Poole's WycUffe (Longmans' " Epochs of Church 
History ") ; and G. M. Trevelyan's England in the Age of WycUjfe. The latter 
part of Miss Bateson's Mediaeval England (" Story of the Nations ") illustrates 
the eocial history, for which also Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, 
and G. C. Macaulay's abridgment of Froissart's Chronicle in English (Mac- 
millan's "Globe Series"), may most profitably be consulted. Jusserand's 
English Waifaring Life in the Fourteenth Century (translated by Lucy T. 
Smith), and the same writer's Piers Ploivman, throw light on important aspects 
of the time. Cunningham's Grou'th of English Industry and Commerce : Middle ■ 
Ages, shows the industrial development of the period. G. G. Coulton's 
Chaucer and his England gives a lively picture of late fourteenth century 
English society. Hilda Johnstone's Hundred Years of History, 1216-1327, gives 
a useful and coherent selection of translations from original authorities. Maps 
xviii. (Edward I.), xix. (Anglia Sacra), xxv. (Scotland c. 1300), and xxix. 
(Early Ireland), in Oxford Histoo-ical Atlas. 



254 THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES [1399. 



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BOOK IV 

LANCASTER AND YORK (1399-1485) 

CHAPTER I 
HENRY IV. (1399.1413) 

Chief Dates : 

1399. Accession of Henry iv. 

1400. Revolt of Owen Glendower. 

1401. Statute de heretico comburendo, 
1403. Battle of Shrewsbury. 

1408. Battle of Bramham Moor. 
1413. Death of Henry iv. 

1. The Lancastrian reyolution of 1399 marks tlie end of the 
period wliicli had opened with the granting* of Mag'na Carta and 
the beg-innings of the parliamentary system. That time had seen 
the growth of our system of limited monarchy and parliamentary 
control, and siarong kings like Edward iii. had sought to evade 
rather than deny their constitutional restrictions. Alone of the 
fourteenth-centuiy kings, Richard 11. had striven to break down 
the constitution and make himself a despot. On his utter failiu*e, 
the throne passed to the man whose previous career and ancestry 
alike "compelled him to accept the constitution and rule England 
as a limited monarch. With Henry iv.'s succession, <rvgrQn. 
the constitutional opposition, whose claims had so often stitutional 
been upheld by the House of Lancaster, mounted the Revolution 
throne. No one could be deceived either by Henry's 
pretence to inherit the throne from Henry ill. or by his claim to 
possess it by right of conquest. The son of John of Gaunt was 
not even the nearest heir to Richard by blood, and the deposed 
king had acknowledged the earl of March, the grandson of Lionel of 
Clarence, as presumptive successor to the crown. But the growth 
of the parliamentary system had made the hereditary element less 

255 



256 HENRY IV, [1399- 

important than ever. Henry owed Ms throne to the choice of par- 
liament, which saluted in him the aveng-er of the Lords Appellant, 
and expected him to rule after a constitutional fashion. The first 
result of the revolution, then, was to secure the triumph of the 
constitutional cause. Henry iv.'s parliaments forced him to redress 
their grievances before they would grant him supplies, and under 
him the House of Commons secured for aU time the exclusive right 
of initiating taxation. On more than one occasion the Commons 
forced him to nominate his council in parliament. If this custom 
had become permanent, his reign would have anticipated the modern 
system of cabinet government, by which the ministers, formally 
chosen by the king, are really subject to the approval of parliament. 
Moreover, not only Henry iv., but his son and grandson also ruled 
after this constitutional fashion. Under the Lancastrian kings the* 
parliament attained the greatest power that it ever secured before 
quite modern times. 

2. Richard 11. had been careless of the Church as well as 
neglectful of the constitution. Under him Lollardy grew, though 
Theecele ^® ^^^ ^^ LoUard; and he was bitterly opposed 
siastieal to the orthodox constitutional prelates, whose in- 
reaetion fluence had so long been thrown into the side of the 
of 1399. opposition. With Henry of Lancaster archbishop 
Arundel came back to England, and was restored to the throne of 
Canterbury, He was the strongest of the conservative prelates of 
his time, and soon made his influence felt against heretics and 
enemies of the Church. Moreover, Henry iv., a crusader in his 
youth, was the most devout and orthodox of kings. The result 
was that the Lancastrian revolution was as much an orthodox 
reaction from the lax and anti-clerical spirit that had prevailed at 
Hiohard's court, as it was a constitutional reaction from the late 
king's despotic ways. The change which secured the rights of 
parKament brought about the decline and fall of Lollardy. In 1401 
Archbishop Arundel carried through parliament a statute for the 
burning of heretics {de heretico comhurendo), by which persons con- 
demned in the Church courts for false teaching were handed over to 
the sheriff of the county to be burnt alive. The first victim of the 
new policy was a Lollard priest named Sa\Ytre. Before the king 
died, Lollardy had produced many martyrs ; and Wycliif e"s teaching 
was not firmly enough rooted to endure the fires of persecution. 

3. It was easier for Henry iv. to win the throne than to keep 
it. All through his reig-n he was beset by troubles on every side. 
The encroachments of his parliaments and the resistance of the 



-1402.] HENRY IV. 2$y 

Lollards were not the worst of his difficulties. He had to face 
a constant series of conspiracies and revolts at home, the persistent 
hostility of the chief foreign powers, and the unending* „ .„ , 
jealousies of rival court factions. Though he had character 
stooped to acts of treachery and violence, he was on and 
the whole a high-minded and well-meaning* man, and "iniquities, 
the death of Richard sat heavily upon his conscience. Though in 
the end he overcame his worst troubles, he wore himself out in the 
struggle. 

4. After the accession of the new king-, parliament reversed the 
acts of the Parliament of 1397, and Richard's friends were deprived 
of their new titles and estates. In disgust at this, the 
partisans of the late king formed a plot against his i>5«v,a j,h h 
successor. Their plan was to meet at Windsor on 

Twelfth Night, 1400, on pretence of holding a tournament. Then 
they were to seize the king and put him to death, and restore 
Richard to the throne. The design was betrayed, and the chief con- 
spirators fled to Cirencester, where the townsfolk forced them to 
surrender. The only important result of the conspiracy was that 
it taught Henry the danger of allowing* Richard to remain alive. 
A short time after its failure it was announced that Richard was 
dead at Pontefract. 

5. Serious trouble soon broke out in Wales; where Richard's 
party was still strong, and where the tradition of national inde- 
pendence still lingered. Difficulties began in a dis- 
pute between the Marcher baron. Lord Grey of Ruthin, Qjendower 
and a neighbouring Welsh landlord, Owen ap Griffith, 

lord of Glyndyvrdwy, on the upper Dee, commonly called Owen 
of Glendower. Grey had taken possession of certain lands which 
Owen claimed, and Owen, being refused all redress by the English 
law courts, recovered the districts by force of arms. His private 
war against Grey soon grew into a formidable rebellion. Before 
long Owen assumed the title of Prince of Wales, and set vigorously 
to work to restore the independence of his country. Every part of 
Wales rallied round him. Many of the castles of the king and liis 
Marcher lords fell into his hands, and two expeditions led by 
Henry in person against him proved utter failures. At last, in 
1402, he occupied Ruthin, and took Grey, his enemy, prisoner into 
Snowdon. A few months later he defeated Sir Edmund Mortimer, 
a grandson of Lionel of Clarence, and uncle of Edmund, earl of 
March, at Pilleth, near Radnor, and also took him prisoner. A 
third royal expedition to Wales was as unsuccessful as the two 



258 HENRY IV. \^^oy 

previous ones. On Henry's retirement, Mortimer made ' peace 
witk Owen, and married liis daug'liter. It was now given out tliat 
tlie object of the allies was to restore King Eiicliard if lie were 
alive, and, if not, to procure tlie accession of tlie earl of March., 
under whom Owen was to reign as prince of Wales. This union of 
the Welsh and the Mortimers threatened aKke the English power 
in Wales and Henry's position in England. 

6. Henry iv. was the less ahle to grapple with the Welsh revolt 
since foreign powers regarded him with great hostility. The 
Revolt of French long refused to recognize him as king, and 
the Pereies, there were fierce disputes ahout the return of Queen 
1403. Isabella, Richard's widow, to France. The Scots were 
eq[ually hostile, and in 1402 invaded England, but were defeated by 
Henry Percy, earl of l^Torthumberland, at SumMeton, where many 
Scottish lords were taken prisoners. ^Northumberland and the 
Percies had materially helped to gain Henry his throne, but they 
were discontented that the king allowed them less power than 
they had hoped, and threw a large share of the trouble and expense 
of fighting the Scotch and Welsh on to their hands. !N"orthumber- 
land's son, Henry Percy, called Hotspur, by reason of his rash 
valour, was the brother-in-law of Edmund Mortimer, and was 
induced by him to make common cause with the Welsh. At last, 
in 1403, the Percies made peace with the Scots, rose suddenly 
against the king, and marched from the north to join the Welsh 
and the Mortimers. Henry resolved to crush the rebellion before 
the Welsh and Percies united their forces, and was helped in this 
by Grlendower rashly choosing this moment to extend his power 
into South Wales. When Hotspur approached Shrewsbury on his 
way to join Owen, he found that the Welsh were far away, and 
that the border city was occupied by the king with a strong force. 
On July 21, the tattle of Shrewsbury was fought at Berwick, three 
miles to the north of the town, on a site since marked by the 
church of Battlefield, erected by Henry in commemoration of the 
victory which he won. Hotspur was slain, his uncle, the earl of 
Worcester, and his ally, the Scotch earl of Douglas, were taken 
prisoners. A few weeks later IN'orthumberland, who had remained 
in his Yorkshire estates, made his submission. For the moment 
the English rebellion seemed suppressed. 

7. Owen G-lendower still remained in arms. A fourth expedi- 
tion of Henry proved as unsuccessful as the rest. Owen now made 
an alliance with the French, and a French fleet came to Carmarthen 
Bay to help him. He summoned a Welsh parliament, and 



-i4o8.] HENRY IV, 259 

transferred Ms obedience from tlie "Roman pope acknowledged in 
England, to the Avignon pope recognized by tlie French. In 
1405 his cause was helped by a second revolt of gpadual 
J^orthnmberland. Thereupon Owen, Mortimer, and collapse 
Northumberland made a treaty by which they divided of the 
England into three parts, of which each confederate ' 

took one as his share. Meanwhile Henry's troops put down 
I^orthumberland's rising at Sliipton Moor, in Yorkshire. North- 
umberland escaped, but Archbishop Scrope of York, who had 
joined him, was taken prisoner and executed, with complete dis- 
regard to the immunity of the Church from secular jurisdiction. 
Northumberland fled to Scotland, but in 1408 he once more 
appeared in the north, and again rallied a force round him. He 
was again defeated, at Bramham Moor, in Yorkshire, and perished 
in the conflict. After his death Henry had no more ti'ouble with 
his English enemies. Even Owen Grlendower gradually began to 
lose ground. The king's son, Henry, prince of Wales, bit by bit 
conquered aU southern and central Wales. However, Owen held 
out manfully in the north, and was still in arms at Henry iv.'s death. 
He was no longer a prince, but a fugitive in the mountains. In 
the days of his prosperity he had shown wonderful courage and 
skill both in fighting the English and in building up his new 
principality. He now showed even more rare gifts in bravely 
coping with adversity. It was no wonder that he became the 
great hero of his countrymen. Wales was, however, once more in 
English hands, and stern laws kept its people in subjection. 

8. As Henry's domestic difficulties decreased, he gradually 
became able to take up a firmer position abroad. In 1406 a 
piece of good luck saved him from further difficulties 
with the Scots. In that year James, the son of and France. 
Robert in., king of Scots, was captured by English 
sailors off Flamborough Head, as he was on his way to be edu- 
cated at the I'rench court. Within a few months his father's 
death made Henry's captive king James i. He remained for 
nineteen years a prisoner in England, where his presence was 
a guarantee that the Scots could not inflict much harm on 
England. Henry was equally lucky in his dealings with France, 
when king Charles vi., Richard ii.'s father-in-law, went mad and 
was qtiite unable to restrain the fierce faction fights that now 
broke out between the two parties of the Burgundians and the 
Armagnacs. The former faction was headed by the king's cousin, 
John the Fearless, ^t^q »of Bui-gundy and count of Flanders, who 



26o HENRY IV. [1406- 

was not only the miglitiest noble in France but also aspired to the 
position of an independent prince. The rival party of the 
Armagnacs was led by the count of Armagnac, one of the greatest 
of the feudal lords of the south. The disputes between them soon 
reduced France to such a low condition that Henry had nothing 
more to fear from her hostility. Towards the end of his reign he 
was able to revenge liimself for the French help given to Grlen- 
dower by sending expeditions to France. These forces at one time 
helped the Armagnacs, at another the Burgundians, and thus 
increased the confusion in that country. 

9. Thus, after long' strug-gles, Henry iv. established himself 
securely in his throne. But he wore himself out in the conflict, 
, ^ and after 1406 was a broken-down invalid. His un- 

fopts and * fitness to govern gave opportunity for court factions 
the prince to revive and strug'gle for power. Archbishop Arundel, 
of Wales. ^jj^Q jj^g^^j long been Henry's chief minister, represented 
the traditions of the Lords Appellant and the old constitutional 
party. He found bitter enemies in the Beauf orts, the half -brothers 
of the king. The Beauforts were the sons of John of Gaunt by 
Catharine Swynford, who became the duke's third wife after their 
birth. This marriage gave an excuse for B;ichard 11. legitimatizing 
Catharine's children, but Henry iv., when he confirmed this act, 
provided that they should not be regarded as competent to succeed 
to the throne. The eldest of the brothers, Jolm, became earl of 
Somerset, while Henry became bishop of Winchester, and Thomas, 
the third, succeeded Arundel as chancellor in 1410. The Beauforts 
upheld the tradition of the courtiers with whom John of Graunt 
had himself so long been associated. They had a powerful ally in 
Henry, prince of Wales, a high-spirited and able young* man, 
who, when very young-, had won much credit by the share he took 
in putting* down the Welsh rising*, but had caused some scandal by 
his wild and injudicious pursuit of amusement during his scanty 
leisure. The prince was ambitious, and showed an eager desire to 
profit by his father's illness to get power into his own hands. 
Against him and the Beauforts Arundel strove to uphold the per- 
sonal authority of the sick king. The archbishop's dismissal and his 
replacement by Sir Thomas Beaufort was the work of the prince. It 
Death of "^^^ believed that the prince wished to procure his 
Henry IV., father's abdication, and the king was bitterly wounded 
1*12. by his son's conduct. Recovering his health somewhat, 

Henry restored Arundel to the chancellorship. Soon afterwards he 
grew worse again, and died in 1413, when only forty-six years of age. 



-I4I3.] 



HENRY IV. 



261 



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CHAPTER II 
HENRY V. (1413-1422) 

Chief Dates : 

1413. Accession of Henry v . 

1414. Oldcastle's Rising. 

1415. Battle of Agincourt. 
1417. End of the Papal Schism. 

1419. Conquest of Rouen. 

1420. Treaty of Troj^es. 
1422. Death of Henry v. 

1. Henry v. was crowned king on Palm Sunday, 1413. " As soon 
as lie was crowned," wrote a chronicler, " suddenly h.e was 
Early changed into a new man, and all liis intention was to 

measures of live virtuously," He had not sliown much, good 
Henry V. feeling in his relations to liis father, but h.e was now 
eager to set his past aside, and to rule wisely as the chosen king of 
the whole nation. He strove to "bury the old feuds by releasing his 
rival, the earl of March, from prison, and by erecting a sumptuous 
monument over the remains of Richard 11. in Westminster Abbey. 
In his anxiety to put a complete end to the Welsh revolt, he offered 
to pardon all the Welsh in arms against him, including Owen 
Grlendower himself. This prudent policy proved completely suc- 
cessful. Owen scorned to accept pardon from his supplanter, and 
remained unconq[uered among the mountains. His followers, 
however, made their submission, and, on the chieftain's death soon 
afterwards, the Welsh troubles were completely ended. 

2. The only thing which Henry did that showed any spirit of 
revenge was his removal of Archbishop Arundel from the chancery. 
^. , Henry Beaufort became chancellor in the archbishop's 

and the place, and remained the new king's chief adviser. 

Lollard Henry, however, continued to work cordially with 

1414^* Arundel, especially when the archbishop attacked the 

Lollards. The most powerful supporter of the 
LoUards was Sir John Oldcastle, a knight from the Welsh March, 
who had become Lord Cobham by his marriage with a Kentish 
heiress. He was an old friend of the king, and had fought under 
him in several campaigns, but Henry's fierce orthodoxy made him 
262 



1414] HENRY F. 263 

regardless of personal ties when lie had to deal with heretics. 
Oldcastle was arrested, and convicted of heresy before Archbishop 
Arundel. Soon after his condemnation Oldcastle escaped from the 
Tower, and neither king" nor archbishop could find out his hiding- 
place. The Lollards had long suffered severely from persecution, 
and in the fall of their leader their last hopes seemed to have 
vanished. In their despair they formed a plot to capture the king 
at Eltham, while a Lollard mob mustered in St. Giles' Fields, 
to the west of London, and sought to divert attention from the 
attack on Henry by an assault on the city. Henry's promptitude 
easily frustrated the conspiracy. He left Eltham for London, and 
shut himself with an armed force within the capital. Next morn- 
ing, January 12, 1414, he surrounded the Lollard gathering at St. 
Giles' Fields, and easily frustrated their designs. Oldcastle fled to 
the March of Wales, where he lay hiding till 1417, when he was 
captured, taken to London, and hung as a traitor. With liis execu- 
tion LoUardy almost disappeared from history. Though the Lollard 
leaders had shown great constancy in persecution, they were too 
few in nimibers and held too extreme views to have much influence 
over the nation at large. Within a generation the Lollards were 
almost extinct. Thus the orthodoxy of the Lancastrian kings 
secured a complete triumph. 

3. Henry v. was above all things a soldier, and his chief anxiety 
was to revive the foreign policy of Edward iii. He had good 
reason to resent the hostility of France to the House jjgjjg^al of 
of Lancaster, and the deplorable state of anarchy into the claim to 
which France had now fallen offered him a temptation, the French 
which he made no effort to resist, to profit by French ^ ^°"®' 
misfortunes. His first parliament agreed with him that he 
should renew Edward iii.'s claim to the French throne, though, 
even if Edward iii.'s title to France had been a just one, the heir 
of it was not the king, but the earl of March. Parliament made 
Henry a liberal grant of money to enable liim to enforce his claim. 
Besides tliis, it passed an act whereby the alien priories — ^that is, 
the small monasteries of foreign monks established on the English 
estates of French houses of religion — should be suppressed, lest the 
foreign inmates should send English money out of the country to be 
employed in making war against England. This law is worth 
remembering, because it marks the first occasion on which parlia- 
ment ventured to suppress religious houses and lay hands upon the 
property of the Church. Orthodox as were Henry and his parlia^ 
ment, they had no great love of extreme ecclesiastical pretensions. 



264 



HENRY V. 



LI4IS- 



4. In tlie summer of 1415, Henry went down to Southampton 
to embark witli his army to France. His departure was delayed 
The fipst ^^ ^^® news that his cousin Richard, earl of Cam- 

expedition bridge, the son of Edmund, duke of York, had joined 
to Fpanee, a plot to deprive the king* of his throne, in favour of 
Edmund, earl of March, whose sister, Anne, he had 
married. Earl Edmund, however, repaid Henry's generosity by 
refusing to join the conspirators, and repeating all that he knew to 
the king. Cambridge was arrested, and condemned to immediate 
execution, and March himself sat among his brother-in-law's 




THE AGINCOURT CAMPAIGN. 



Emery Walker cc. 



judges. Immediately afterwards the king and his troops crossed 
over to France, landing at the mouth of the Seine. 

5. In France, Henry's first step was to besiege Harfleur, a town 
which was then the chief port on the north bank of the estuary. 

Harfleur made a heroic resistance, and the English 
Hapfieup! ° suffered greatly from sickness during the long siege. 

When, late in September, the place at last surrendered, 
Henry's army was so much weakened that aU he could do was to 
march northwards to Calais, by as direct a road as lay open to him. 
He proceeded along the l^orman coast as far as the Lower Somme, 
where he reached the ford of Blanchetaque, which Edward iii. had 
crossed in 1346. There, however, he found that the French held 



1415.] HENRY V. 265 

the bank with, such force that it was dangerous to attempt the 
passage. Accordingly, he marched past Abbeville and Amiens, 
up the left bank of the Somme, which he at last succeeded in 
crossing a little higher up than Peronne. Here he again resumed 
his northward progress, which was uninterrupted until he had safely 
crossed the Ternoise at Blangy, between Saint-Pol and Hesdin. 
Once over the river, he climbed up through narrow and deep-sunk 
lanes to the plateau which lies north of the stream, and took up 
his quarters at the village of Maisoncelles. There he perceived 
that his further movements was blocked by a g-reat French army, 
which held the flat upland immediately to his north, between 
the villages of Tramecourt and Agincourt, now called Azincourt, 
whose hedges and enclosures formed natural limits to the battle 
ground to the east and west. 

6. The war-worn Eng-lish army had now the alternative of 
retreating, or of cutting its way through the superior forces of the 
enemy. Henry at once resolved to engage in battle, and The battle 
his soldier's eye saw at once that the narrow plateau on of Agin- 
which the French had elected to fight did not give court, 
them room enough to employ their superior numbers to advantage. 
By the morning of October 25, his troops were ready to fight a 
defensive battle after the accustomed fashion. Archers and men- 
at-arms were alike dismounted, and the former, placed on the wings 
of each of the three divisions of the army, provided themselves with 
stakes to form a palisade to protect them from the French charge. 
For some time they waited, hoping that the enemy would attack, 
but instead of this the French withdrew somewhat to the north. 
Thereupon Henry ordered the English to advance, and take up a new 
position between Agincourt and Tramecourt, within bowshot of 
the foe. This act of daring stirred up the French to make their 
long-deferred attack. The bulk of their army was also dismounted, 
but cavahy forces occupied each wing, and these, galled by the 
English arrows, advanced, in the hope of riding down the English 
archers. Protected by their palisades, the English bowmen made 
light of the assault, and soon the French horsemen were retreating 
in confusion. By this time the French men-at-arms had drawn near 
to the EngKsh centre. The soft ground was muddy from recent 
rain, and the heavily armoured French, assailed by the archers on 
their flanks, found their action much impeded. Seeing that the 
enemy's forward movement was checked, the archers, flushed with 
victory, abandoned the paKsades, and feU on the French with 
sword, axe, and mallet in flank and rear. Before long the whole 



266 



HENRY V. 



Chi5' 



Frenci. army was thrown into hopeless confusion, and the English, 
with slight loss, won an overwhelming victory. IlText day, the 
conquerors renewed their march for Calais, and, within a few 
weeks, Henry marched in triumph through London. 




The dotted lines mark the hedges enclosing the villages 



7. Agincourt won for Henry as great a position in Europe as 
ever Edward iii. had enjoyed. One good result that flowed from 
The Council *^^^ ^^^' ^^'^^ Henry was able to use his influence to 
put an end to the deplorable schism in the papacy, 
which, since 1378, had scandalized all Europe. The 
Emperor Sigismund was very anxious to restore unity 
to the Church, hut the first efforts to promote it had 
had the unfortunate result that a third pope was elected 
while the other two popes still remained in oflB.ce. Sigismund visited 
England, where Henry gave him a royal welcome. Partly through 
their efforts, a General Council of the Church met at Constance. 
At first, it seemed likely that the enmity of France and England 
would make peace hopeless among* the assembled councillors ; but 
at last the union of the English and G-ermans resulted in the 
deposition of all three popes, and the appointment of Martin v., a 
new pope whom all Europe recognized. The council also tried to 



of Con- 
stance, and 
the end of 
the Schism 
in the 
Papacy. 



-I420.J HENRY V. 267 

remedy the abuses of the Church. In this it was not very 
successful; but it burnt John Huss, a professor of the univer- 
sity of Prague, in Bohemia, who had studied Wycliffe's writings, 
and had striven to establish in his own ]and the views that the 
Lollards had upheld in England. Thus the teaching of WyclifPe 
was condemned on the Continent as well as in Eng-land. The 
Hussites, though they made a brave fight, were put down like the 
Lollards, and the orthodox party triumphed everywhere. 

8. The battle of Agincourt had not resulted in the capture of a 

single castle, and from 1415 to 1417 aU the lands held by the 

English in northern France were Calais and Harfleur. jj^g ^^^^ 

Harfleur itseK, which Henry wished to make a second quest of 

Calais, was in some danger. However, in 1417, Henry Normandy, 

i 1417-19 
led a second expedition into France, with which he set 

to work to effect the conquest of Normandy. He met with fierce 

resistance at every step, but persevered with such energy, that, by 

1419, nearly the whole of the duchy was in his hands. The last 

place of importance that resisted him was E-ouen, which surrendered 

early in 1419, after a long and famous siege, which tried the skill and 

endurance of Henry's soldiers far more than the fight at Agincourt. 

9. Burgundians and Armagnacs continued their feuds even 
when the enemy was conquering their native country, and it was 
not until all Normandy was in English hands that the jj^g treaty 
two factions made an effort to unite against the ofTroyes, 
invader. At last, however, it was arranged that ^^^^O. 
Charles, dauphin of Yienne, the mad king's eldest son, who 
now led the Armagnacs, should hold a conference with Duke 
John of Burg-undy, at Montereau on the Yonne. The meeting took 
place on the bridge, and was signaKzed by the treacherous murder 
of the duke by the Armagnacs. A great wave of feeling now 
turned all northern France from the bloodthirsty Armagnacs. 
Philip the Grood, Duke John's son and successor, at once made a 
treaty of alliance with the English. Paris, where Burgundian 
feeling was very strong, gladly followed his lead, and in 1420 the 
treaty of Troyes was signed between Henry and his French allies, 
by which the foreign invader assumed the new character of the 
partisan of the Burgundian faction. By it, Henry was to marry 
Catharine, the daughter of the mad King Charles vi., and to govern 
France, as regent, for the rest of his father-in-law's life. On 
Charles's death, Henry and his heirs were to succeed to the 
French throne, it being only stipulated that France should still be 
ruled by French laws and by French councillors. So bitter was 



268 HENRY V. C1421- 

the f eeHng against tlie dauphin, tliat a larg'e number of Frenclinien, 
and most Parisians, gladly welcomed the victor of Agincourt as 
their ruler. English arms had won Henry only one glorious victory 
and one province. The Burgundian alliance now opened up the 
prospect of his ruling over all France. 

10. The treaty of Troyes was largely accepted in the north. 
However, south of the Loire, where Armagnac feeling predomi- 
The battle nated, Charles the Dauphin was still recognized, and 
of Bauge, Henry's pretensions were rejected. While Henry re- 
^'*^^* turned to England with his new queen, his brother 
Thomas, duke of Clarence, strove to extend the sphere of Anglo- 
Burgundian influence in Central France. In 1421 Clarence wa^i 
defeated and slain, at Bauge, by a force of French and Scots. 

11. It was clear that much fighting would take place before 
the treaty of Troyes could be carried out. Henry at once led 
_, . a third expedition into France, taking with him the 
pedition captive king of Scots in the hope that the Scots 
and death of would hesitate to fight against their own sovereign. 
?429^ ^" Henry was welcomed by the Parisians as their future 

king, and had made some progress with his difficult 
task, when he was carried off by disease, at Yincennes, in August, 
1422, when only thirty-five years of age, and before disaster had 
checked his wonderful career of conquest. He was one of the 
greatest of our kings, an admirable soldier, an able general, a 
wise and conciliatory statesman, and a highminded, honourable 
gentleman. He was strict, austere, grave, and cold. His inten- 
tions were good, but he wanted insight, sympathy, and imagination. 
He found it easy to persuade himself that whatever he wished to 
do was right. Thus he was profoundly convinced that his pursuit 
of power and glory flowed altogether from his conviction of the 
lawfulness of his claims to the French crown. He was, however, 
wonderfully efficient in carrying out anything that he undertook. 
Though he could be cruel to those who stood across his path, he 
was, for the most part, a lover of justice, a kind master, merciful 
to defeated foes, and careful of the comfort and well-being of his 
soldiers and subjects. His piety was sincere, but showed an un- 
lovely side in his harshness to the Lollards. He was the only strong 
and popular king of the house of Lancaster, and Englishmen 
trusted him so entirely that he could afford to play the part of 
a constitutional ruler, since his parliaments always gave him all 
that he asked for. His glory, undimmed during his life, shone 
with even brighter lustre through the disasters of the next reign. 



-1422.] 



HENRY V. 



269 






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W rid I « 

M-l rrt C^ C8 



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CHAPTER III 
HENRY VI. (1422-1461) 

Chief Dates: 

1422. Accession of Henry vi. 

1429. Relief of Orleans. 

1431. Death of Joan of Arc. 

1435. Congress of Arras. 

1444. Truce of Tours. 

1447. Deaths of Gloucester and Henry Beaufort. 

14S0. Revolt of Cade. 

1453. Battle of Castillon. 

1455. Battle of St. Albans. 

1460. York claims the throne ; battle of Wakefield. 

1461. Deposition of Henry vi. 

1. On Henry v.'s death, his only son, a bahy nine months old, 
succeeded him as Henry vi. A few weeks later the little king's 
grandfather, Charles vi., died also. Henry was thereupon proclaimed 
Reee evof ^^S ^^ Trance as well as England. It was hard 
Bedford enough, under any circumstances, to carry out the 

established, conditions of the treaty of Troyes, and this policy had 
1422. ^^^ ^Q l^g executed under the special difficulties of a 

long minority in hoth realms. The Eng-lish parliament made 
Henry's elder uncle, John, duke of Bedford, protector of Eng- 
land, and the king-'s chief councillor; but as John also became 
regent of France, it was provided that, in his absence, his younger 
brother, Humphrey, duke of Grloucester, should hold his English 
office. In reality, the royal power was put into the hands of the 
council, of which Gloucester was little more than the president. 

2. Bedford was a true brother of Henry v., and showed rare 
skill, devotion, and magnanimity in carrying out the hopeless 
task which lay before him. He was wise enough to 
work in see that the only chance of making his nephew king 

Fpanee, of France lay in close alliance with Philip the Grood 

1422-1428. ^^^ ^Q Burgundian party. He showed such loyalty 
to his allies that, in Paris and all other districts of northern 
270 1 



1426.] HENRY VI. 27 1 

France where the Burgnndiaiis were influential, his nephew was 
accepted as king- mthout difficulty. He further strengthened his 
position by an alliance with the duke of Brittany, who, after 
Burgundy, was the most powerful of the great French feudatories. 
All his exertions could not, however, prevent the proclamation of 
the dauphin as Charles vii. in central and southern France ; and, 
south of the Loire, the only district that acknowledged Henry as 
king was the scanty remnant of the English duchy of Aquitaine. 
Charles vii. was, however, hated for his share in the tragedy 
at Montereau; and his self-indulgent, lazy, and unenterprising 
character made him ill-fitted to play the part of a patriot king*. 
His enemies called him, in derision, the " king of Boui-ges," and 
he seldom went far from the region of the middle Loire, where 
his best friends were to be found. Bedford and Burgundy 
now sought to extend their power. In 1423 they defeated the 
Armagnacs at Cravant, near Auxerre, in Burgundy, and in 1424 
won another brilliant victory at Verneuil, in upper Normandy. 
As the Scots continued to give much help to the French, Bedford 
released the captive James I., married him to Jane Beaufort, the 
daughter of the earl of Somerset, and sent him back to Scotland 
as the aUy of the English. Bedford's prudent policy was, how- 
ever, sorely hampered by the foUy of his brother G-loucester, who 
made himself the rival of Burgundy by marrying Jacqueline of 
Bavaria, a claimant to the county of Hainault, over which Duke 
Philip also had pretensions. The Anglo-Burgundian alliance 
seemed on the verge of dissolution, when Duke Humphrey invaded 
Hainault, and waged open war against Duke Philip. However, 
in 1426, Bedford managed to patch up peace between them, but 
it was long before the old cordiality between England and Bur- 
gundy was restored. The natural result of this was that the 
cause of King Henry made slow progress in France. Though 
Bedford and Burgundy could win battles, they were not strong 
enough to govern the country which they conquered. Northern 
France fell into a deplorable condition of weakness and confusion. 
Things were even worse in the regions which acknowledged 
Charles vn. The increasing weakness of the rival factions 
threatened aU the land with the prospect of long years of anarchy. 
3. In England, Duke Humphrey gave almost as much trouble to 
Bedford as in the Netherlands. He was a showy, vain-glorious, 
seH-seeking man, who made constant efforts to win popularity. 
Hjs only good point, however, was his love of letters and patronage 
pf learned pien. He was an incompetent politician, and under 



272 HENRY VI. [1422- 

his presidency tlie council was rent asunder by tlie disputes 
of rival factions. Grloucester posed as the leader of the popular 
-. , party, while his uncle, Henry Beaufort, bishop of 

asPpoteetop Winchester, carried on the traditions of the court 
of England, politicians with which the Beauf orts had been identified 
1422-1429. sjjj^ce -fche reign of Henry iv. Beaufort was a wiser 
statesman than his nephew, and had more influence in the council ; 
while Gloucester was popular with the commons, who called him, 
with little reason, the Good Duke Humphrey. The disputes between 
the two rivals destroyed the effectiveness of the council, and 
weakened the government of the country. More than once Bedford 
was forced to abandon his work in France, and betake himself to 
England to reconcile his brother and his uncle. He never succeeded 
in establishing real cordiality between them. When the pope made 
Beaufort a cardinal, Grloucester demanded that he should be driven 
from the council, since, as cardinal, he was the natural counsellor 
of the pope, and had, therefore, no place among the advisers of an 
English king. So troublesome did Grloucester remain, that, in 
1429, it was thought wise to crown the little king. Henry was only 
seven, but, after this ceremony, it was imagined that he was com- 
petent to rule on his own account. Gloucester ceased to be pro- 
tector, and power fell more and more into the hands of Beaufort. 
His rival, however, was still strong enoug-h to put grievous obstacles 
in the way of effective government. 

4. The restoration of the Anglo-Burgundian alliance, and the 
diminution of Gloucester's influence in England, enabled Bedford 
The siege "^^ ujidertake fresh steps for the extension of his power 
of Orleans, in France. He now resolved to attempt the conquest 
1428. q£ ^Jjq Yeii bank of the Loire, where Charles's power 
chiefly centred. As a preliminary to this he began, in 1428, to 
besieg-e Orleans. This town, which is situated on the right bank 
of the Loire, commanded one of the few bridges that then spanned 
the rapid river. It was the natural gate of the south, and its 
reduction would have been a deadly blow to the fortunes of the 
king of Bourges. Charles, however, was quite unable to give any 
help to the hard-pressed garrison, and it looked as if Orleans would 
soon be forced to surrender to the Anglo-Burgundian alliance. 

5. At this moment of extreme depression in the fortunes of 
France, there occurred one of the most wonderful things in 
aU history. One day there came to King Charles's court at Chinon 
a simple country girl, named Jeanne D'arc, or, as the English 
called her, Joan of Arc, She was a native of Domremi, a 



-1429.] HENRY VI. 273 

village on the banks of the Meuse, on the borders of Champagne 
and Lorraine, and at the eastern extremity of the French king- 
dom. While tending her father's sheep in the fields, j^e mission 
she had long pondered over the evils which the war of Joan 
had brought upon France. At last, as she firmly of Arc. 
believed, G-od revealed HimseK to her in visions, and bade her 
undertake the work of saving France from the foreigners, and 
restoring the blessings of peace. When first she told of her revela- 
tions every one mocked at her, but soon her faith won over many 
to believe in her mission. She was despatched right through the 
enemy's country, from Domremi to the king's court at Chinon. 
" The King of heaven," said she to Charles, " bids me to tell you 
that you shall be anointed and crowned in the church of Reims, 
and that you shall be the deputy of the King of heaven, who is also 
King of France." Charles vii. had little belief in her words, but 
affairs were now so desperate that he let her do what she would. ' 
She donned armour like a man, and rode on a horse at 
the head of the garrison despatched to relieve the force j, opiea 
at Orleans. At the end of April, 1429, Joan fought 
her way into Orleans, where her presence filled the discoui*aged 
soldiers with renewed hope. On May 7 she led an attack on the 
Tourelles — -the strongest of the forts which the English had 
erected to shut in the beleaguered city. The Tourelles were taken, 
and, next day, the Eng'lish abandoned the siege, and withdrew to 
the north of the Loire. A few weeks later Joan won 
a pitched battle over the English in the open field p^tay 
at Patay. These successes broke the long tide of 
disaster, and the courage and faith of Joan again made Frenchmen 
have confidence in themselves and their country. 

6. Joan now bade the Eng-lish quit France and recognize 
Charles as king. She fulfilled her promise by conducting Charles 
through the heart of the enemy's country to Reims, corona- 
where she stood by while he was crowned and anointed tion of 
king. Charles's position in the north was still so weak Charles Vll. 
that he was forced to retreat beyond the Loire immediately after 
the ceremony. Yet from this moment his position in France was 
changed. Up to now he had been the discredited leader of a 
faction ; henceforth he was the divinely appointed monarch, with 
an indefeasible claim to the obedience of all Frenchmen. French 
patriotic feeling, long suspended through the baleful effects of 
party strife, once more asserted itself in response to the teaching of 
the maid of Orleans. 



274 



HENRY VI, 



L1429- 




\ English Territory 



Smery IVaCker.sc. 

Burgundian 



\Territory other than English, French or Buraundian 
h Battlefields 



FEANCE IN 1429, 



-I43I-] HENRY VI. 275 

7. The first stage of Joan's work had now been accomplished ; 
but she did not regard her mission as completed until she had 
driven the English out of France. She therefore still Martyrdom 
remained with the army, and made desperate efforts to of Joan of 
win over the north to the patriotic cause, Yictory, ■^^*^' 1431. 
however, had made her over- confident. Her merit lay in her faith 
and inspiration. N'ow that, owing to her success, soldiers sought 
her advice on problems of generalship, she naturally made bad 
mistakes. She failed completely in an attack on Paris, and rashly 
threw herself into Compiegne, a place which, stirred up by her 
patriotic influence, had thrown off the Burgundian yoke and was 
now besieged by Duke Philip. On May 23, 1430, she fell into the 
hands of the enemy as she was returning from an unsuccessful 
sally on the defenders. After a long imprisonment, Joan was 
condemned, by a French ecclesiastical court, as a witch, and in 
1431 was burned to death at Rouen. She had done such great 
deeds that English and French alike believed that there was some- 
thing supernatural about her. But while French patriots were 
convinced that she was a maid sent from God, the English and 
Burgundians professed that she was inspired by the devil. She 
died so bravely that the more thoug-litful of her English foes were 
convinced of her nobility of purpose. " We are undone," said they, 
" for this maid whom we have burned is a saint indeed." 

8. The wcJrk of the maid of Orleans outlasted her martyrdom. 
The whole French people was now on the side of -, 
Charles, and even the Burg'undians who had done Joan of Henry VI. 
to death beo-an to feel that their true position was that at Paris, 

of traitors in league with the national enemy. In 
the face of ever-increasing difficulties, Bedford struggled nobly 
to uphold the English power. As if to answer the hallowing- of 
Charles at E-eims, he brought Kiag Henry to France, and soug-ht 
to have him also crowned at the accustomed crowning-place. But 
the patriotic party was now so strong- in Champag'ne that access 
to E-eims was impossible, and, after long* delays, Bedford was 
forced to be content with his nephew's coronation in the cathedral 
of Paris. An English bishop, Henry of Winchester, performed the 
ceremony, and even the faithful Parisians grew discontented at the 
prominence given to the young king's Eng-lish councillors. 

9. The personal relations between Bedford and Burgundy now 
became strained. The death of Bedford's wife, who was Duke 
Philip's sister, broke the closest tie between them, and Bedford 
soon committed his one imprudence, that of marrying Jacquetta of 



2/6 HENRY VI. [1435- 

Luxemburg, a vassal of Philip, without the duke's knowledge or 
permission. From that moment the Eng-lish power in France 

rapidly declined. The end came the quicker since 
Arras and ^^® intrigues of Duke Humphrey once more forced 
death of Bedford to revisit England. When he went back to 

Bedford, France he found that, outside IsTormandy and the 

neighbourhood of Paris, the English power was 
almost at an end. Duke Philip, now anxious to break with his 
English allies, summoned, in 1435, a general European Congress 
to meet at Arras, in the hope of making peace. There the English 
were offered the whole of Normandy and a large extension of their 
Gascon duchy if they would conclude peace and renounce their king's 
claim to France. With great unwisdom, Bedford refused these 
terms. He withdrew from the cong-ress, and died soon after. 
Burgundy then made peace with Charles, and, in 1436, Paris opened 
its gates to the national king. 

10. The war stiH lingered on for many years. Though success 
was hopeless, the English stiU struggied bravely, and the French 
Th eaee were stiU SO weak that their progress was compara- 
and war tively slow. Henry vi. was now reaching man's 
parties in estate. He was virtuous, intelligent, religious, and 
England. humble, but he was not strong enoug-h, either in mind 
or body, to rule England effectively. The factious strife in his 
council went on as much as ever, and the parties of Grloucester and 
Cardinal Beaufort still contended for ascendancy. Beaufort was 
statesman enough to see that the wisest course for England was to 
conclude an honourable peace with France, which was still willing 
to make substantial concessions of territory in return for Henry's 
renunciation of his claim to the throne. Duke Humphrey bitterly 
opposed this pacific policy, and won a cheap popularity by 
denouncing all concessions, and clamouring for the continuance 
of the war. The young king was sincerely anxious .for peace, and, 
as he grew up, his support gave Beaufort's party the ascendancy in 
the council. The indiscretion of Eleanor Cobham, G-loucester's 
wife, now brought about a further diminution of the duke's 
influence. The duchess of Grloucester, knowing that her husband 
was next in succession to the throne if Henry should die, consulted 
witches and astrologers as to the best way of hastening that event. 
By their advice she made an image of the king in wax, and melted 
it before a slow fire, believing that, as the wax melted away, so the 
king's life would waste away. In 1441 the duchess's childish form 
of treason was detected. Her accomplices were put to death, and 



'1447- J HENRY VI. 2^/ 

Eleanor herseK was imprisoned for life in the Isle of Man. Not 
daring to intervene, Duke Humphrey " took all things patiently, 
and said little." Henceforth he had little influence, and chiefly 
busied himself with his favourite pursuit of literature. 

11. In 1442 Henry came of age, and, guided by Beaufort's 
advice, pressed forward the policy of peace. WiUiam de la Pole, 
earl of Suffolk, a soldier who had fought bravely against 

the French, and a strong supporter of Cardinal Beau- '^^ ^''"1444, 
fort, became the chief agent of the royal policy. In and the 
1444 he negotiated a short truce at Tours, by which a French 
marriage was arranged between Henry and Margaret ^^IP^^^' 
of Anjou, the daughter of Hene, duke of Anjou, 
nominal king of Sicily and Jerusalem, and actual count of Provence 
and duke of Lorraine. The house of Anjou was a junior branch 
of the French royal house, and E-ene's sister was the wife of 
Charles vii. In 1445, Margaret, a liigh- spirited girl of fifteen, was 
brought to England by Suffolk, and married to Henry. 

12. The marriage was not popular ; Margaret was poor, and did 

not even bring assured peace with France as her wedding portion. It 

was necessary to renew the truce from time to time, and Deaths of 

the English were forced to purchase its continuance Gloucester 

by the surrender of the few posts they held in Maine and Beau- 

fort 1447 
and Anjou, nominally to Margaret's father, really to ' 

the French. Suffolk was now made a duke, and became the chief 

adviser of the king and queen. In 1447 he procured the arrest of 

Gloucester, who had bitterly opposed the French marriage. Soon 

after his apprehension Duke Humphrey died. He had long been 

in wretched health, and his death was in all probability due to natural 

causes. His friends, however, persisted in believing that he was 

murdered, and accused Suffolk of the crime. In the same year his old 

enemy. Cardinal Beaufort, died also. He was the shrewdest statesman 

of the age, and his policy, though unpopular, was undoubtedly the 

right one. His death left the chief burden of responsibility on Suffolk. 

His nephew, Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset, now represented 

the family tradition, and was Suffolk's most prominent ally. 

13. The weak point of Suffolk's position was that, though he 
had staked everything upon the French alliance, he had made no 
lasting peace. Yet he was so sure that peace would continue, that 
he neglected the commonest precautions for securing such pos- 
sessions as stiU remained in English hands. His ally Somerset, 
who was governor of Normandy, so grossly neglected his charge, 
that it was not unreasonable that doubts should be cast upon his 



2/8 HENRY VI. [1449- 

honoiir. Knowing* that tlie EngKsh. were in no position to resist, 
the French broke the truce in 1449, and invaded Normandy, 
which had been largely in English hands since its 
Normandy conc[iiest by Henry v. thirty years before. Somerset 
1449-1450, made a poor resistance, and, by 1450, the whole of 
and Gas- ISTormandy had passed over to the French. Next year 
' ' Grasoony was attacked, and the last remnants of the 
Aquitanian inheritance renounced English sway when Bordeaux 
arid Bayonne opened their gates to the conqueror. 

14. There was, however, a great difference between Grascony and 
Normandy. In Normandy the French came as deliverers, while in 
The Battle Gascony they came as conquerors. The men of the 
of Castillon, south had no complaint against the rule of their English 
^^^J-^® ®"^ dukes, and the government of Charles vii. proved so 
Hundred harsh and unpopular that, in 1451, they rose in revolt. 
Years' War, John Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, an aged hero who 
1453. Jiad fought in every war since the rebellion of Owen 
Grlendower, was sent, in 1452, at the head of a considerable army 
from England, to assist the revolted Gascons. On his arrival nearly 
the whole of the district round Bordeaux rcourned to the English 
obedience. On July 17, 1453, Shrewsbury fought the last battle 
of the war at Castillon on the Dordogne. The French held a large 
entrenched and palisaded camp, defended by three hundred pieces of 
cannon. The Anglo- Gascon troops rashly charged these formidable 
earthworks, but were decimated by the enemy's fire before they 
reached the entrenchments. Shrewsbury himself was among the 
slain, and on that day the English duchy of Gascony finally perished. 
This was the last act of the Hundred Years' War. Henceforth 
Calais alone represented the English king's dominions in France. 

15. The disasters in France created a strong feeling among the 
English against the incompetent statesmen who controlled her 
Murder of destinies. In the parliament of 1450, Suffolk was im- 
Suffolk, peached, and a long series of charges broug-ht against 
1450. him. He was accused of corruption and maladminis- 
tration, of betraying the king-s' counsel to the French, and of 
conspiring to win the throne for his son. So loud was the outcry 
against him, that Henry vi. dared not protect his favourite minister. 
He declared the charg-es ag'ainst him not proved, but strove to 
appease the Commons and keep the duke out of harm's way by 
banishing* him from England for five years. As Suffolk was sailing 
towards Calais, his vessel was intercepted by a royal ship, called the 
Nicholas of the Tower, which was lying in wait for him. Carried 



f45o.j HENRY VI. 2jg 

on board the Nicholas he was greeted with the cry of " Welcome, 
traitor ! " and bidden to prepare for his end. Next day he was 
forced into a little boat, and an Irishman, " one of the lowest men 
in the ship," clumsily cut off his head with a rusty sword. The 
headless body was thrown upon the English coast, that aU might 
see that not even the king's favour could save a man from the 
judgment of the commons of England. 

16. The murder of Suffolk by the king's own seamen showed 
that the government was unable to preserve order. A few weeks 
later the incapacity of the administration was further Revolt of 
proved by a formidable rising of the commons of Kent. Jack Cade, 
Led by an Irish adventurer, named Jack Cade, who 

gave out that he was an illegitimate son of the last earl of March, 
a formidable force of Kentish men marched towards London, and 
set up a fortified camp on Blackheath. They defeated the king's 
troops, and Henry was forced to flee before them from London to 
the midlands. On his retreat, the citizens opened their gates to the 
rebels. At first. Cade kept good order, but his followers soon got 
out of hand, slew the king's ministers, and began to rob the citizens 
of their property. Many of the Londoners now turned against 
them, and there was a formidable fight between the citizens and the 
rebels on London Bridge. At last, however, the Kentish men were 
persuaded to go home under promise of a general pardon. Cade 
now endeavoured to excite a fresh revolt in Sussex, but was slain 
by a Kentish s(iuire. His death ended the rebellion. At first 
sight the revolt reminds us of the rising of 1381, but the only 
grievances of the commons of Kent in 1450 were political. Their 
rebellion was a protest against the maladministration which still 
prevailed at court. Even the fall of Suffolk had taught nothing to 
the king and his advisers, and the only way to clear the council of 
Suffolk's party seemed to be armed resistance. 

17. Cade had made use of the name of Mortimer ; and, soon after 
his death, the true heir of the Mortimers, Bichard, duke of York; 
came to London from his Irish estates, and assumed ^^^ position 
the leadership of the opposition. York was the only of Riehapd, 
son of Richard, earl of Cambridge, whom Henry v. duke of 
had executed in 1415, and his wife, Anne Mortimer, 

sister and heiress of Edmund, the last earl of March of his house. 
From Ms grandfather, Edmund of Langley, third surviving son of 
Edward iii., he inherited the duchy of York, but liis real importance 
was due to his having inherited from his mother the earldoms of 
March and Ulster, with vast estates in the west of England and in 



28o HENRY VI. [1450- 

Ireland. Moreover, Anne Mortimer was the heiress of Lionel, 
duke of Clarence, so that her son represented the elder line of the 
descendants of Edward iii. !N"either York nor his friends, however, 
regarded him as a rival to Henry vi. as king, Duke E-ichard's 
object was rather to renew the policy of Thomas of Lancaster or 
Humphrey of Grloucester. He aimed at acting as the leader of the 
constitutional opposition, and his chief motive was to drive the un- 
popular courtiers from the king's council, and help Henry to rule 
more firmly. Henry and Margaret were, however, childless, and 
York was generally looked upon as the nearest heir to the throne. 

18. About the time York came back from Ireland, the French 
conquest of Normandy compelled its discredited governor, Somerset, 
Beeinnine ^^ return to Engiand. Despite his proved incom- 
of the Wars petence and possible treachery, Somerset was cordially 

of the Roses, welcomed by king and queen, and forthwith put in the 
1450-1455 I/O -L ^ ^ X 

place which Suffolk had once occupied. York at once 

demanded the dismissal of Somerset from the king's counsels. 
The outcry against the unpopular duke was soon increased by 
the tidings of the loss of Gascony, and the king, who was weak 
and peace-loving, mig-ht weU have yielded to the storm. Margaret 
of Anjou, however, possessed the vigour and manliness which were 
so singularly wanting in her husband, thoug'h unluckily she never 
understood England, and thoug-ht only of protecting her friends 
against their enemies. Through her support Somerset's position 
remained unassailable. At last, in 1452, York raised an army. 
He was, however, anxious to avoid civil war, and dismissed his 
forces on the king-'s pledging himself that he should be admitted 
to the council, while Somerset should be imprisoned until he cleared 
himself of the accusations brought against him. Margaret pre- 
vented her husband from carrying out his promise, and York soon 
found that he had been tricked. In 1453 the king lost his reason. 
In the same year the birth of a son to Henry and Marg'aret — 
Edward, prince of Wales — cut off York's prospects of a peaceful 
succession to the throne, while the tidings of the battle of Castillon 
came to increase the distrust generally felt for the negligent 
government. For a time the council carried on the administration 
in the king's name, but in 1454 parliament insisted on the appoint- 
ment of a regent, and, to Margaret's disgust, the Lords chose 
York protector of England. Before the end of the year the king 
was restored to health, and York's protectorate was put to an end. 
Somerset was restored to power, and York was even excluded from 
the royal council. Irritated at this treatment, Duke Richard once 



-I455-] HENRY VI. 28 1 

more appealed to arms. In 1455 lie defeated his enemies at the battle 
nf St. Albans, where Somerset was slain and the king wounded 
and taken prisoner. His agitation once more robbed Henry of his 
reason, and for a second time York was made protector. 

19. The battle of St. Albans is g-enerally described as marking 
the beginning of the Wars of the Roses, so called in later days 
because the house of York had a white rose as its character - 
badge, and the house of Lancaster was thought to isticsofthe 
have a red rose. In reality the red rose was not used Wars of 
till later, when it became the badge of the Tudors, who 

were the heirs of the Lancasters. The phrase Wars of the Roses,. 
then, is a misnomer ; but it is one so generally used that it may 
be allowed to stand. Whatever their name, these wars lasted for 
thirty years. It was not, however, a period of continued fighting,, 
and affairs were not much more disorderly after the battle of' 
St. Albans than before it. It was rather a period of short wars- 
divided by longer periods of weak government. The ultimate 
cause of the strug'gle was the inability of Henry vi. to govern 
England. Part of this was due to Henry's personal incompetence, 
but the root of the matter lay deeper. The long war with France 
had increased the greediness and ferocity of the English nobles, 
and now that they could no longer win booty and g'lory abroad, 
they began to fig-ht fiercely with each other. Nothing but a strong 
king, able to enforce his will, could remedy this state of things. 
Since 1399, however, parliament had been so powerful that the 
crown had not enough power left to do its work. The Commons 
were not yet strong and coherent enoug'h to take the lead, and 
parliamentary government meant, in practice, the rule of a tur- 
bulent nobility, which delighted in anarchy and was too proud to 
obey the law. The majority of the nobles were contented with 
the weak government of Henry, and even lent a steady support 
to Somerset. The Commons, on the other hand, longed for the 
restoration of order, and upheld the cause of Richard of York 
because they thought him vigorous enough to put an end to the 
prevailing misgovernment. 

20. Though most of the nobles were Lancastrians, a few great 
houses supported the Yorkists. Conspicuous among these was the 
junior branch of the great Yorkshire family of the 
NeviUes, earls of Westmorland. The head of this ^f N"vil!l^ 
was Richard N^eville, who became by marriage earl of 
SaKsbury, and whose sister Cicely was the wife of Richard of 
York. His eldest son, also named Richard Neville, became earl of 



282 HENRY VL £1455-^ 

Warwick by Ms marriage witli the heiress of the Beauchamps. 
Both father and son had taken a prominent share in winning the 
battle of Sto Albans, and henceforward they were the chief sup- 
porters of the Yorkists (see for the Il^evilles table on page 294). 

21. The second protectorate of York was even shorter than the 

first. Early in 1456 the king regained his wits, and York was 

forced to resign. The death of Somerset weakened the 
Reeoneilia- » x ^ tt ^ x. xa • j. 

tion and the ^^^^^n s party, and Henry, always honestly anxious to 

renewal of restore peace, allowed York to keep his place on the 

the strife, council. Both factions, however, bitterly hated each 
1455-1459 1. . 

other, and every nobleman went about with a band 

of armed followers, even when attending royal councils. The 
country was hardly governed at all. Private wars became common, 
and the French commanded the Channel and plundered the coasts. 
Amidst the general confusion Warwick showed himseK the 
strongest man in England. In 1458 he gained a naval victory 
over the French which saved England from invasion. Soon after- 
wards he quarrelled with Margaret and withdrew to Calais, of 
which he was governor, leaving the queen supreme. Next year 
(1459) Margaret strove to strengthen her position by an attack 
on Salisbury. War was at once renewed. Salisbury defeated 
Lord Audley, the queen's commander, at Blore Heath in Stafford- 
shire, near Market Drayton. Soon afterwards Warwick returned 
from Calais. The two ISTevilles joined Richard of York at Ludlow 
the centre of the Mortimer estates. Thereupon the king proceeded 
to the Welsh March, and showed such activity that he scattered 
the Yorkist forces without having to fight a battle. York took 
refuge in Ireland, while Warwick and SaKsbury fled to Calais. 
After this flight a packed parliament at Coventry attainted all 
the Yorkist leaders. The triumph of the king seemed complete. 

22. Henry's sudden burst of energy did not last long. The 
next year, 1460, Warwick and Salisbury came back to England, 
York claims ^^^ with them came Edward, earl of March, the 
the throne, duke of York's eldest son. On July 10 they fought 

and won the battle of Northampton, when Henry was 
taken prisoner. York now returned from Ireland, and, when parlia- 
ment assembled in October, claimed the throne as the nearest kin of 
Edward iii. through Lionel of Clarence. The lords of parliament 
courag-eously rejected this claim, but agreed to a compromise, which 
Henry, to spare further bloodshed, also accepted. By this Henry 
was to keep the throne till his death, but York was declared his 
successor, and was to act as protect«)r for the rest of the king's life. 



-1461,3 HENRY VI. 283 

23. After the battle of Northami^ton, Margaret had fled to 
Wales with her son Edward. She was bitterly indignant with her 
husband for his weak abandonment of the rights of fiie fall of 
their child, and resolved to carry on the struggle Henry VI., 
against Duke E-iohard. With that object she made ^460-1461. 
her way to Scotland, where she obtained substantial help at the 
price of the surrender of Berwick. She was stiU in Scotland when 
the Lancastrian lords of Yorkshire rose in revolt against the rule 
of York. In December, Richard hurried to the north to suppress 
the rebellion. He kept his Christmas at his castle of Sandal, near 
Wakefield, which the enemy threatened to besiege. York scorned 
to be " caged like a bird," and on December 30 marched out of 
Sandal to offer battle to the superior forces of the Lancastrians, 
The fight which ensued, called the hattle of Wakefield, Battle of 
cost him his army and his life. Salisbury, who was Wakefield, 
taken prisoner, was beheaded next day, and York's 1460. 
young'er son, the earl of Rutland, was butchered after the fight 
by one of the Lancastrian lords. Thereupon Margaret hurried 
from Scotland and joined her victorious partisans. At the head of 
the fierce warriors of the north, she made her way to London. As 
she approached the capital, Warwick went out to intercept her at 
St. Albans, taking the king with him. On February gggQ^j 
17, 1461, the second tattle of St. Albans was fought, in Battle of 
which Warwick was completely defeated and Henry fell St. Albans, 
into his wife's hands. The wild north countrymen were, 
however, so much out of hand that even the reckless Margaret feared 
to lead them on to London lest they should wreak such atrocities as 
should permanently alienate the citizens from her cause. While 
she hesitated, Edward, earl of March, now duke of York by his 
father's death, effectively rallied his party. A fortnight before 
Margaret's victory, he had scattered the Lancastrians of the west 
at the battle of Mortimer's Cross, near Leominster, gattle of 
Thereupon he hastened towards London at the head of Moptimep's 
a great army of Welshmen and Marchers from his own Cross, 1461. 
estates. He joined Warwick's beaten troops on the way, and nine 
days after the battle of St. Albans, took possession of London. 
Soon after, Warwick's brother, G-eorge Neville, bishop of Worcester, 
the Yorkist chancellor, declared to the citizens that Edward might 
rightly claim the crown. On March 4, Edward seated himself on 
the royal throne in Westminster Hall and asked the people if they 
would have him as king. A shout of " Yea, yea ! " rose from the 
assembly, and henceforth the pretender ruled as Edward iv. 



284 



HENRY VL 



[1461. 



lENEALOGY OF THE HOUSE OF YORK, INCLUDING THE MORTIMERS 

AND STAFFORDS 



Roger Mortimer, 
st earl of March, d. 1330, 
great-grandfather of 



Edward hi. 
(See table on page 254). 



(3) 



(5) 



(6) 



I 



Edmund Mortimer, 
iarl of March, d. 1381. 



Lionel of Antwerp, 

duke o£ Clarence, 

m. Elizabeth de 

Burgh. 

m. Philippa. 



Edmund of 
Langley, 
duke of York, 
d. 1401. 



Roger Mortimer, 

earl of March, 

d. 1398. 



Sir Edmund 
Mortimer, m. 
daughter of 
Owen Glendower. 



Elizabeth 
Mortimer, 
m. Henry- 
Percy, 
"Hotspur." 



Edmimd Mortimer 

earl of March, 

d. 1424. 



Anne Mortimer m. Richard, earl of 
Cambridge, 
d. 1415. 



Thomas of Woodstock 
duke of Gloucester, 
m. heiress of 
Bohuns. 

I 
Anne 
m. Edmund Stafford, 
great- grandparents of 
Henry StafEord, 
duke of Buckingham, 
d. 1483. 
I 
Edward Stafford, 
duke of 
Buckingham, 
d. 1521. 



Richard, duke of York, m. Cicely Neville 

d. 1460. I (see table on page 294). 



Edward, earl 


Edmund, 


George, 


Richard, Margaret, 


of March, 


earl of 


duke of 


duke of m. Charles, 


Edward iv.. 


Rutland, 


Clarence, 


Gloucester. the Rash 


1461-1488, 


d. 1460. 


d. 1478. 


Richard hi., duke of 


m. Elizabeth 




ra, Isabella 


1483-1485. Burgundy 


Woodville 




Neville 


m. Anne (see table 


(for her family 




(see table 


Neville on page 269) 


see table on 




on page 294). 


(see table 


page 299). 






on page 294). 


1 
Edward v.. 


Richard, duke 


1 
Elizabeth, 


Catharine, 


1483. 


of York, 


m. Henry vii 


m. Edward 




d. 1483. 


1485-1509. 
1 


Courtenay, 
earl of 






Henry viii. 


, Devonshire. 






, 1509-1547 


\ 






(see table on page 


419). Henry Courtenay 
marquis of Exeter 
d. 1538. 



Persons not mentioned in the text in italics^ 



CHAPTER IV 
EDWARD IV. (1461-1483) 

Chief Dates : 

1461. Accession of Edward iv. and battle of Towton. 
1464. Battles of Hedgeley Moor and Hexham. 

1470. Restoration of Henry vi. 

1471. Battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury. 
1475. Treaty of Picquigni. 

1478. Death of Clarence. 
1483. Death of Edward iv. 

1. Edwaud IV. was only nineteen years old when he became king, 
but had already shown himself to be a born general and leader of 
men. He was exceedingly tall and good-looking, and ^^j^ard IV. 
his winning' manners made him personally popular. He and the 
was inclined to carelessness and self-indulgence, but Yorkist 
whenever he spurred himself to take action, he showed ^^^ ^* 
wonderful decision and vigour. Though pleasure-loving, greedy, 
and cruel, he was just the strong man needed to save England 
from anarchy. He owed his throne to his wisdom in the camp 
and in the cabinet, and few Englishmen concerned themselves as 
to whether he were the nearest heir of Edward iii. AU those 
parts of England, and aU those classes of society to which peace 
and good order mattered most were his partisans. The townsman, 
the trader, and the artisan, the whole of the south and east, then 
the richest part of the country, were in his favour. The Londoners 
strongly supported him. Besides these, Edward owed much of his 
triumph to the steady backing of Warwick, who, after his father's 
death, united in himseK the Beauchamp and Montagu inheritances. 
Warwick had enormous estates all over the country, and could raise 
an army of his own tenants in the west midlands. Gentlemen of 
good estate thought it an honour to wear his livery and display his 
badge of the bear and ragged staff. Men called him the King- 
maker, because he had done so much to win Edward the crown. 
His services to Edward were even more signal than those which the 
Percies had rendered to Heniy iv. Another great source of 

285 



286 



EDWARD IV. 



[146 1 - 



streng-th. to the new king were Lis own vast estates, and especially 
the enormous territories wliioh. he inherited from the Mortimers. 

2. Many still regretted the rule of Lancaster. There was 
still much sympathy for the gentle and nno:ffending king, and 
Battle of every tenant of the broad estates of the house of 
Towton, Lancaster felt personal devotion to his cause. Outside 

^^^^* his hereditary lands, Henry's chief supporters were 

the fierce barons of the north, who had profited by his weakness 
to build up their own power. All the great names of the north 




^.«Si^^' 



Emery Walker sc. 



BATTLE OF TOWTON. 



country, such as Clifford and Percy, were on his side, including 
even the senior branch of the house of ISTeville, which held the 
earldom of Westmorland. The natural antagonism of the Princi- 
pality and the March made the Welsh good friends of Henry. 
Accordingly, when, after Edward's proclamation, Margaret hurried 
with her husband to the north, the Lancastrian partisans were 
stni able to fight desperately. Edward at once followed Mar- 
garet to Yorkshire, and, on Palm Sunday, 1461, the decisive battle 
of the war was fought between the northern and southern armies 



-1464.] EDWARD IV. 287 

at Towton, three miles soutli of Tadcaster, in Yorkshire. The 
Lancastrians were stationed on the northern slope of the rising- 
ground overlooking the depression called Towtondale, between the 
villages of Towton and Saxton. Their left extended to the main 
road from the south to Tadcaster and York, while their right 
stretched towards the Cock beck, a tributary of the Ouse. A 
blinding snowstorm blew into their faces, and almost prevented the 
armies seeing- each other. On such a day there was little opportunity 
for manoeuvring, and even archery was ineffective. Nevertheless, 
Edward marshalled his inferior forces with such consummate skill 
that the Lancastrians lost the chief advantages derived from their 
strong position and numerical superiority. The southerners fought 
their way bit by bit up the slopes of the hill, and finally drove the 
northerners in panic flight from the field. The slaughter was 
terrible. Many fugitives were drowned in the swollen Cock, and 
the snow along the York road was stained with their blood. Henry 
and Margaret fled to Scotland, and their open alliance with England's 
traditional enemies robbed them of their last chance of the throne. 

3. For the next nine years Edward iv. was monarch in fact as well 
as in name. He returned to London, and was crowned king. His 
brothers, Greorge and E-ichard, were made dukes of 

Clarence and Gloucester, and parliament attainted K^waiS^IV 
Henry and the chief Lancastrian partisans. Even 
now Margaret did not lose heart. She sought help from the 
French as well as the Scots, and for the next four years her 
attempts to stir up risings in the north made Edward's throne 
insecure. The last of these efforts was in 1464, and was crushed 
by the Yorl^st victories of Hedgeley Moo?' and Hexham. Henry vi., 
who had joined the rebels, narrowly escaped capture in the pursuit 
that followed the latter battle. The Scots now abandoned him, 
and made a long truce with Edward. For more than a year the 
deposed king hid himself away amidst the wild moorland that 
separates Lancashire and Yorkshire. At last he was captured near 
CKtheroe, in Ribblesdale, and taken to London. Misfortune and 
harsh treatment soon robbed him of his small wits ; but, as long as 
his son lived and was free, it was the obvious interest of Edward 
to keep him alive. 

4. No sooner had Henry's captivity secured the throne for 
Edward iv. than difficulties arose between the new king and his 
own partisans. Warwick expected to keep him in constant con- 
trol. The earl secured for his brother George the archbishopric 
of York, and placed his other brother, John, in the earldom of 



288 EDWARD IV. [1468- 

NortliTimberland, forfeited by the Percies through, their obstinate 
adhesion to Lancaster, l^ow that peace was restored at home, 
The Nev'lles ^^^^^^"^ policy again became important, and Warwick, 
and the adopting" the traditions of the Beanf orts, urged Edward 

Woodville to make an alliance with France, which was then ruled 
marriage. -^^ ^^ crafty and politic Louis xi., who had succeeded 
his father, Charles vii., in 1461. Louis was anxious to win Edward's 
support, because he was engaged in a life-and-death struggle with 
the House of Burgundy, now ruled by Charles the Rash, son of 
Philip the Good. The Burgundian power extended over the whole 
of the Netherlands, and its duke rivalled the king of Prance, 
and surpassed the emperor in wealth, power, and importance. 
Accordingly, Louis proposed that Edward should wed Bona of 
Savoy, the sister of his queen. Warwick eagerly supported this 
proposal, and prepared to embark for Prance to bring about the 
match. Before he could start, Edward publicly announced that he 
was already married. His wife was Elizabeth Woodville, daughter 
of Lord Rivers, and widow of Sir John G-rey, who had perished, 
fighting for Lancaster, in the second battle of St. Albans. The 
lady was poor, and her family was insignificant, but her beauty 
attracted the king, who was very glad to inflict a public slig'ht on 
the too-presumptuous Warwick by ostentatiously putting him into 
a false position. Edward soon broke with the Prench and made an 
alliance with Charles of Burgundy, who, in 1468, married Margaret, 
the king^'s sister. In his anxiety to free himself from the control 
of the Nevilles, Edward strove to raise up in the kinsmen of 
the new queen a party devoted to himself and bitterly hostile to 
Warwick (see table on page 299). Her father became Earl 
Rivers, her brothers and sisters made rich marriages, and soon a 
family party arose whose wealth, arrogance, and want of ancestral 
dig'nity made them bitterly hated by the old nobles. 

5. Warwick lost aU his influence at court, and his brother, 
the archbishop of York, was driven from the chancery. In deep 

disgust, the king-maker sought for an ally against the 
Welles and ^i^S"' ^^^ found one in Edward's vain and worthless 
Robin of brother, George, duke of Clarence, who fully shared 

i^fpQ^^^^^' Warwick's jealousy against the queert's kinsmen. 

Warwick had no son, and his two daughters, Isabella 
and Anne, were likely to divide his great possessions. In 1470 
Warwick married Isabella, his elder daughter, to Clarence, and 
lured his son-in-law into treason by holding out hopes of putting 
him on his brother's throne. In 1469 Warwick's kinsfolk and 



-I470.] EDWARD IV. 289 

dependents stirred np a popular rising- against Edward. The 
rebels, commanded by a knig-lit who took the false name of Robin of 
Redesdale, defeated the king's troops at Edgecote, near Banbury, 
and beheaded the c^ueen's father, whom they took prisoner. Edward 
was reduced to such distress that he surrendered to Archbishop 
IN'eville, and remained for a time at the mercy of his foes. ISText 
year (1470) the tide turned. There was another rising of the JSTeyiUe 
partisans, headed by Sir Robert Welles. Edward put this down 
with promptitude at Stamford, where the insiu'gents threw off their 
coats to run away with such haste that men called the day Lose 
Coat Field. WeUes, taken prisoner, confessed that there had been 
a plot tc make Clarence king. Edward then sought to lay hands 
upon his enemies, and Warwick and Clarence took ship for France. 

6. Louis XI. gave the exiles a cordial welcome. The French 
king was anxious to weaken Charles of Burgundy by driving 
Edward from the throne, and was shrewd enough to ^nianee of 
see that Warwick's best way of winning back his Warwick 
position in England was by effecting a reconciliation ^^^ Mar- 
between him and the Lancastrians. After much ^ 
difficulty, Louis managed to make an alliance between Warwick 
and Margaret of Anjou, who, since her husband's captivity, had 
lived in France. It was arranged that her son, Edward, prince of 
Wales, should marry Anne NeviUe, Warwick's younger daughter, 
and Warwick promised henceforward to be faithful to Henry vi. 
Louis then equipped a small expedition, and sent Warwick and 
Clarence to England. In September they landed at Plymouth, 
and, profiting by Edward's absence in the north, marched to 
London, and brought back Henry vi. from the Tower to the 
throne. Edward, unable to resist, fled to the Netherlands, where 
he took shelter with his brother-in-law, Charles the Rash. Thus 
Warwick once more proved his right to his title of king-maker. 
He was now monarch in all but name, for misfortunes had reduced 
Henry to permanent imbecility. The restored monarch was now, 
we are told, " like a sack of wool," and " as mute as a crowned caK." 

7. Henry's vi.'s nominal restoration to power lasted from 
October, 1470, to May, 1471. In March, 1471, Edward iv. landed 
at Ravenspur, on the Humber, where Henry of Therestora- 
Lancaster had landed in 1399. Englishmen who tion of 
had been too apathetic to save him from his defeat, Henry VI,, 
stood aside with equal indifference while he strove 

to win back power. At first Edward gave out that he had only 
returned to claim his father's duchy of York, but, as followers 

u 



290 



EDWARD IV. 



[1470- 



gathered roiuid liim, he openly ' announced that he wished to 
regain the throne. Before long he was joined by his "brother 




Emery Walker sc 

Clarence, who saw that Warwick's alliance with the Lancas- 
trians was fatal to his personal ambitions. The brothers then 



-I47I.] EDWARD IV. 29 1 

pushed south, for London, which opened its gates to them on 
April 11. Thereupon Henry vi, was put back in the Tower, and 
Edward was once more recognized as king. Edward then marched 
out of London, and on Easter Sunday, April 14, gave battle to 
Warwick at Barnet, ten miles to the north of the capital. The 
fig'ht took place in a thick mist, so that everything depended 
upon hard hand-to-hand fighting, "Warwick and his brother John, 
marquis of Montagu, were slain on the field, and the death of the 
king-maker consummated the triumph of the Yorkists. With aU 
his vig'our and energy, Warwick had shown no striking capacity 
either as a soldier or as a statesman. His chief motive of action 
was the acquisition of power for himself and his family. He is 
the last conspicuous embodiment of the great baronial class whose 
turbulence had reduced England to anarchy, 

8. Margaret, who had hitherto tarried in France, landed in the 
west of England along with her son on the fatal Easter Day 
which witnessed the ruin of her cause. Yet even .j.j^g Battle 
now a considerable force from the south-west and ofTewkes- 
from Wales rallied round her. Edward hastened to bury, 1471. 
check her prog-ress, and on May 4 the Lancastrians stood at bay at 
Tewkesbury. Edward easily won the day, and took Margaret and 
Edward prisoners. The young prince of Wales was barbarously 
butchered, and the same fate befel the duke of Somerset, the third 
head of the house of Beaufort who had lost his life in the eivil 
wars. Margaret was taken by her captors to London, and was 
kept in prison for the next five years, after which she was suffered 
to go home to France to die. Immediately after Edward's arrival 
in London, it was given out that her husband had died in the 
Tower, " out of pure displeasure and melancholy." It was generally 
believed that he was murdered, and rumour made Edward's brother, 
Richard of Grloucester, specially responsible for the crime. In truth, 
after his son's death, Henry's life was no longer valuable to Edward, 
so he ordered him to be slain without delay. Of all the cruel deeds 
of this pitiless time none was more wanton than the death of the 
harmless and saintly king. 

9. Edward reigned in peace and without a rival for the rest of 
his life. His position was much stronger than in the earlier period 
of his rule, and lie soon felt himself able to revenge himseK on 
Louis XI, for abet"ting Warwick, In 1475 he agreed to unite with 
his brother-in-law, Charles of Burgundy, in a combined attack on 
France, Parliament gladly voted a liberal subsidy, and Edward 
marched out of Calais at the head of a large and brilliant force. 



292 EDWARD IV. [1475- 

Mncli to his disgust, Charles joined liim, not with an army, hut 
almost alone. The duke of Burgundy had unwisely gone to war in 
Edward IV Grermany, though his Freiich rival was still unheaten. 
Burgundy, Edward and Charles disliked each other already, and 
and France. Cliarles's lack of faith gave the English king a good 
excuse for deserting- so untrustworthy an ally. Louis, eager to win 
England to his side, was lavish in promises, and at last the two kings 
held a meeting on the bridge of Picquigni, a village on the Somme, 
between Abbeville and Amiens. So distrustful were they of each 
other that they kept themselves apart by a wooden partition, and 
talked through a g'rating. In the treaty of Ficquigni Louis bought 
peace with England by the payment of a large sum of money, and 
a promise to marry his son to Edward's daughter. Edward then 
returned home, leaving* Charles to his fate. Two years later, in 
1477, the rash duke of Burgundy was slain at the battle of !N"ancy, 
in the course of an unsuccessful war which he had foolishly pro- 
voked with the Swiss. Louis xi. now annexed Burgundy to 
France, but could not prevent the Netherlands going to Mary, 
Charles's daughter, though not by his Eng'lish wife, Margaret of 
York. Mary married the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, and 
we shall soon hear again of her descendants. Even after this 
check, Louis xi. was so powerful that he had no longer any need 
to humour the king of England. Just before the death of both 
kings in 1483, Louis repudiated the marriage arranged at 
Piccj[uigni, and ceased paying subsidies to keep England quiet. 
Edward was so much mortified that the French believed he died 
of grief at the news of this breach with France. But for his death 
a renewal of war would have probably ensued. 

10. Edward was the strongest ruler of England since Edward ill. 
He was popular with the people, and especially with the merchants, 
Home policy because he kept the nobles in good order and sternly 
of Edward put down private war. He ruled in a very different 

fashion from that of the Lancastrians. He looked 
on parliaments with suspicion, and summoned them as seldom 
as he could. When he wanted money he did not always go to 
parliament, but often asked his subjects to give him what was 
called a benevolence. This was nominally a free gift offered by 
the subject to the king, but in reality those who were asked to 
give a benevolence dared not refiise to pay it. Edward did not, 
however, risk the popularity which he loved by exacting too large 
sums from his subjects. 

11. Clarence soon began once more to excite the suspicions of 



'I483.] EDWARD IV. 293 

th.e king. He liad been fully pardoned for his treachery in 1470. 
He was made earl of Warwick and Salishuiy, and hoped to secure 
for himself the whole inheritance of liis father-in- 
law, the king-maker. He found, however, a rival for ciarenee 
the Warwick estates in his younger and abler brother, 1478, and 
Richard, duke of Gloucester. Anne NeviUe, War- Edward IV., 

1 483 

wick's younger daug-hter, was the widow of the 
unfortunate son of Henry yi. In 1472 she was prevailed upon 
to marry Richard of Grloucester, the reputed murderer of her first 
husband. Henceforward the two brothers were rivals for the 
!N"eville and Beauchamp lands, and Clarence became very dis- 
contented when Edward .assigned the larger portion of them to 
his brother. Thing's grew worse when Isabella N^e^olle died, 
and Clarence sought to upset his brother's good understanding 
with France by a proposal, which came to nothing, that he should 
marry Mary of Burgundy, the heiress of Charles the Rash. 
Clarence now had against Mm the king, Gloucester, and the 
powerful kinsmen of the queen. In 1478 he was accused of 
treason, attainted in j)arliament, and condemned to execution. 
Edward was afraid to slay Clarence openly, and put him privately 
to death in the Tower. It was believed at the time that he was 
drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine. Five years later, in April, 
1483. Edward iv. died. 



294 



EDWARD IV. 



[1483. 



GENEALOGY OF THE NEVILLES 

John Lord Neville of Raby, 
d. 1388. 

RalpJi Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, 
d. 1425. 



John Neville, 




Richard Neville, 


1 
Cicely, 


ancestor of the 




earl of Salisbury, 


m. Richard, 


earls of West- 


m. 


heiress of Montagus, 


duke of York 


morland, elder 




d. 1460. 


d. 1460 (see 


md Lancastrian 








table on 


branch of the 








page 284). 


family. 


^ 










Richard Neville, 


John Neville, 


George 




earl of Warwick 


sometime 


Neville, 




and Salisbury, the 


earl of 


bishop of 




king-maker, d. 1471 


Northumberland 


Worcester 




m. heiress of 


and marquis 


and arch- 




Beauchamps. 





f Montagu. 
. (1) Edward, 


bishop of Yorko 


1 
Isabella, 


Anne, m 




m. George, 


prince of Wales, 




duke of Clarence. 


d. 1471, (2) Richard, 








duke of Gloucester, 




1 


1 


Richard iii., d. 1485. 




Edward, 


Margaret, 






earl of 


countess of 






Warwick, 


Salisbury, 






d. 1499. 


d. 1541. 

I 
Reginald Pole. 








cardinal and arch- 






bishop of Canterbury, 






d. 1558. 









Persons not mentioned in the text in italicSo 



CHAPTER V 
EDWARD V. AND RICHARD III. (1483-1485) 

Chief Dates : 

1483. Reign of Edward v. Accession of Richard iii. 
1485. Battle of Bosworth and death of Richard in. 

1. Edwaed IV. left two sons. Tlie elder, wlio was only twelve years 
old, now became Edward v., and his younger brother, E/icliard, had 
already been made duke of York, By the late king's 
will, the guardianship of the young king went to his j^gg " 

uncle, Richard, duke of Grloucester, who was at once 
acknowledged as lord protector by the council. Richard had kept 
on good terms with the queen's kinsmen, and they doubtless expected 
to share power with him. The chief of the queen's family were her 
brother Antony Woodville, Earl Rivers, and her two sons by her first 
marriage, Thomas G-rey, marquis of Dorset, and Sir Richard G-rey. 
At the moment of his accession the young king was at Ludlow, in 
the custody of his uncle Rivers and his half-brother, Richard 
Grey. Fearful lest G-loucester should put an end to their influence, 
they formed a plan with the queen for Edward's immediate corona- 
tion, hoping that this would put an end to Grloucester's protectorate, 
and make the Woodvilles and Greys masters of the kingdom. The 
upstart kinsmen of the queen were, however, very unpopular, and 
were particularly disliked by the old nobles, whom they had driven 
from the court and council of the late king. The most important 
of the old nobles was Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham, a 
descendant of Thomas of Woodstock, the son of Edward iii., and 
the representative of the great house of the Bohuns. Buckingham, 
though married to a sister of the queen, was bitterly opposed to her 
policy. He made common cause with G-loucester, and the two 
allies showed great vigour in striking against their enemies. As 
the young king was riding from Ludlow to London, escorted by 
Rivers and Richard Grey, Gloucester and Buckingham fell upon 
Jiim, took Rivers and Grey prisoners, and secured the personal 

295 



296 EDWARD V. AND RICHARD III. [1483- 

ciistody of Edward, whom tliej l)rouglit to London. In great 
alarm Queen Elizabeth fled for sanctuary to Westminster Abbey. 

2. G-loTicester's first move was so snccessful that it encouraged 
him to go further and aim at the crown. He found a fresh 
The deposi- difficulty when some of the nobles, who had cordially 
tion of supported him against the Woodvilles, refused to join 
Edward V. ^--^^ ^^^ -^^ ^j^jg f^irther step. At the head of this- 
party was Lord Hastings, a prominent friend of Edward iv., and,, 
up to now, a conspicuous ally of G-loucester. Gloucester showed 
the same vigour against Hastings that he had shown against the 
Woodvilles. On June 13 he accused Hastings of treason, during' a 
meeting of the council. After a stormy scene, Grloucester struck 
his fist sharply on the table, whereupon soldiers rushed in, dragged 
Hastings out, and at once cut off his head on a log* of timber. 
Rivers and Grey were now executed, and Dorset only saved his life- 
by flight beyond sea. The queen was persuaded to surrender the 
duke of York to the protector, who forthwith shut him up in the 
Tower, where the king was already in safe custody. The protector's 
next step was to win over the Londoners to his side. Next Sunday, 
June 22, his partisan, Dr. Shaw, brother of the mayor, delivered a 
sermon at St. Paul's on the text, " Bastard slips shall not take deep 
root." The preacher declared that Edward iv. had made a contract 
to marry another lady before he had wedded Elizabeth Woodville, 
and that therefore his marriag'e with her was invalid. As a result 
of this, the young king* and his brother were illegitimate. Doubts 
were also cast on the lawful birth of Edward iv. and Clarence, and 
the duke of Gloucester was declared to be the rightful heir to the 
crown. The Londoners heard this strange tale in silence ; but,. 
two days later, Buckingham repeated Shaw's statements in the- 
Guildhall to the mayor and chief citizens. The majority of his 
audience was still unmoved, but a few of the retainers of the two- 
dukes raised shouts of " King* B^ichard ! " and their cry was sup- 
posed to be evidence that the city had declared itself in favour of 
the protector. Parliament met next day, and begged B;ichard to 
accept the throne. After a sham pretence of reluctance, Gloucester 
fell in with their wishes. On July 6 he was crowned Eichard iii. 
in Westminster Abbey. After this event nothing more is known. 
as to the fate of the deposed Edward v. and his brother Bichard 
of York. There is little doubt but that they were murdered in the 
Tower by their uncle's orders. 

3. In the sordid revolution which made Bichard iii. king, Buck- 
ingham had played the part of a king-maker. Bichard now 



-1485.] EDWARD V. AND RICHARD III. 29/ 

overwhelmed him with favours, and even promised to surrender to 
him the haK of the Bohun estates which Henry iv., in the right of his 
mother, had brought to the crown. Yet Buckingham Richard III. 
soon became discontented, and his inordinate ambition and Buck- 
made him look still higher. In August he fled from ingham. 
court, and raised the standard of revolt at Brecon. At first he thought 
of claiming the throne for himseK, but in the end he was prudent 
enough to unite with the remnants of the Lancastrian party, which 
was still strong in Wales. At the head of a considerable force of 
Welshmen, Buckingham marched as far eastwards as the Severn. 
But the river was in flood, and he could not effect a i)assage over it. 
This check soon proved fatal to his hopes. His forces melted away, 
and he was obliged to flee in disguise. Before long he was tracked 
to his hiding-place, and on November 2 was beheaded in the market- 
place of Salisbury. 

4. Early in 1484 E,ichard met his parliament. It attainted 
Bucking-ham and the other enemies of the king, and passed many 
useful acts, conspicuous among which was a statute Richard 
declaring benevolences illegal. Its proceedings show III.'s policy, 
that Richard was making a bid for popular favour, 1483-1485. 
and striving to pose as a constitutional Yorkist king. He was 
anxious to remove the bad impression created by the crimes 
tln'ough which he had won his way to the throne, and he was 
so able a man that he might very well have become a good ruler 
and a useful king if he had had the chance of developing liis policy. 
However, his power rested on too narrow and personal a basis. ^-He 
could not conciliate the Lancastrians, and he had hopelessljl set 
against himself most of the supporters of York. He could expect 
no faithful service from the selfish nobles who had helped him to 
the throne, and constant intrigues and conspiracies made his position 
insecure. Moreover, domestic troubles further clouded his prospects. 
His only son and his wife died. Thereupgii he thought of making 
his heir, Edward, earl of Warwick, the son of Clarence. Richard 
also proposed to marry his own niece Elizabeth, the daughter of 
Edward iv. and Elizabeth Woodville. Before this scheme could 
be carried out, a fresh revolt cost him his crown and his life, 

5. After the murder of Henry vi. and his son, the main branch 
of the house of Lancaster had become extinct. The only repre- 
sentative of the line of John of Gaunt had now to be mu« t> 

,...-- « -r^ A The Beau- 

sought m the house of Beaufort, whose legitimate forts and 

descent was more than doubtful. Even the house of ^^^ Tudops, 

Beaufort was extinct in the male line, when the last of the dukes 



298 EDWARD V. AND RICHARD III. [1485. 

of Somerset was put to death on tlie battlefield of Tewkesbury. It 
was, however, still represented by the Lady Margaret Beaufort, 
daughter of John Beaufort, first duke of Somerset, and now the 
heiress of all the Beaufort claims. From her cradle the Lady 
Margaret had been a great heiress, and she had been married by 
Henry vi. to his haK-brother, Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond. 
Richmond's father, Owen Tudor, was a Welsh gentleman who had 
neither high rank nor great possessions. He was good-looking, 
plausible, and attractive, and won the heart of Henry vi.'s mother, 
Catharine of France. To the great scandal of the court, Catharine, 
the widow of a king of England and the daug'hter of a king of 
France, took this Welsh squire for her second husband, and had by 
him two sons. The elder of these was the Edmund Tudor, earl of 
Richmond, who was married to the Lady Margaret, while the 
younger, Jasper, became earl of Pembroke. Edmund Tudor had 
long been dead, but his son by Margaret, Henry Tudor, inherited 
the earldom of Richmond, and was now, for the lack of a better, the 
only possible head of the house of Lancaster, to which all the 
Tudors were entirely loyal. Both Henry Tudor and his uncle 
Jasper had long been living in exile in Brittany. The split in the 
house of York, consequent on Richard's usurpation, had revived 
the hopes of the Lancastrians, so that Henry Tudor now became 
an important personage. Though Margaret was still alive, Henry 
was regarded as the only possible Lancastrian monarch. Bucking- 
ham, when he revolted from Richard, declared himself in favour 
of Richmond's claims to the throne, and, after Buckingham's fall, 
all who wished to put an end to Richard's power looked to the exile 
in Brittany as the most likely instrument of their wishes. 
Prominent among Richard's supporters were the brothers Thomas 
and William Stanley, the heads of a rising house which had already 
attained a great position in south-west Lancashire. Like Bucking- 
ham, the Stanleys were disloyal to Richard, and Thomas, the elder, 
was now the husband of the Lady Margaret, Richmond's mother. 
While still remaining in Richard's confidence they intrigued with 
the Breton exiles. 

6. In 1485, Richmond and Pembroke left Brittany 

The battle £ France, where Charles viii., who had succeeded his 

of Bos worth ' 

and the father, Louis xi., in 1483, received them with favour, 

death of and helped them with men and money. In the sum- 

^isT''*^"^*' ^^^ *^^y crossed over from Harfieur to Milford 

Haven, where they landed at the head of a small 

army. The Welsh flocked in large numbers to their countryman's 



I485-] 



EDWARD V. AND RICHARD III. 



299 



standard, so that Henry Tudor was strong* enough to march 
through Wales into the Midlands and challenge Richard's throne. 
On August 22 the decisive battle between Henry and Richard was 
fought at Marhet JBosworth, in Leicestershire, During the struggle 
William Stanley deserted Richard for Henry, and tliis settled the 
fortunes of the day. Richard perished, fighting desperately to the 
last. When the field was won, Thomas Stanley, who had taken no 
part in the action, came up and joined the victor. At the end of 
the fight, the crown, discovered in a hawthorn bush, was placed by 
Thomas Stanley on his stepson's head. Henceforth the Lancastrian 
exile was King Henry vii. 



GENEALOGY OF THE GREYS AND WOODVILLES 

Richard "Woodville, earl Rivers, d. 1469, 

m. Jacquetta of Luxemburg, 

widow of John, duke of Bedford. 

I 



Anthony Woodville, 

earl Rivers, 

d. 1483. 



Elizabeth Wood\-ille, 

m. (1) Sir John Grey, 

d. 1461. 

(2) Edward iv., 

d. 1483. 



Catharine Woodville, 
m. Henry Stafford, 
duke of Buckingham, 
d. 1483 (see table 
on page 284). 



(1) 
Thomas Grey, 

marquis of 
Dorset, d. 1501. 



Thomas Grey, 

marquis of 
)orset, d. 1530 
commander in 
Spain, 1512). 



(1) 
Sir Richard 

Grey, 

d. 1483. 



(2) 

Edward v., 

d. 1483. 



.(2) 
Richard, 

duke of 

York, 

d. 1483. 



Mary m. Charles Brandon, 
duke of Suffolk. 



3enry Grey, marquis of Dorset and 

duke of Suffolk, d. 1554, m. Frances Brandon. 



(2) 
Elizabeth, 
m. Henry 



VII. 



Henry viii. 

(see table on 

page 419). 



Ladv Jane Grev. 



Lady Catharine Grey. 
Lord Beauchamp. 



CHAPTER VI 
BRITAIN IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 

1. The fifteentli century in England witnessed no g-reat chang-es 

in tlie constitution. We liave seen how, in tlie earlier part of it. 

The eon- ^^^ Lancastrian rulers were so completely controlled 

stitution ^y their parliament that in a fashion their g'overnment 

in the seems to anticipate our modern cabinet system. But 

®.®^ the times were too rough to make such a method of 

eentupy. ° 

government practicable. The supremacy of parliament 

meant in effect the increase of the power of the nobility, and the 

rule of the nobles meant constant factions and threatened anarchy. 

The Lancastrian constitutional experiment perished in the Wars 

of the E,oses, and the result of the failure was the restoration of 

a strong monarchy under Edward iv., who prepared the way for 

the still stronger rule of the Tudor s. With the decay, alike in 

numbers and in power, of the baronial aristocracy, one characteristic 

feature of medigeval English society was removed. 

2. The Church, like the nobility, had seen its best days. It 

had escaped the threatened danger of LoUardy, and seemed out- 

Th rh v» wardly as powerful as ever. Never was it more wealthy 

or mag'nificent, and never did churchmen take a more 

prominent share in the national life. But it had lost the old 

vigour and spiritual force which had marked the Church of the 

thirteenth century. Its characteristic leaders were political 

ecclesiastics, who spent their days in the service of the State, and 

received their reward from the wealth of the Church. In the 

days of St. Thomas of Canterbury it had been thoug-ht impossible 

for the same man to be archbishop of Canterbury and the king's 

minister. In the fifteenth century it became a regular custom to 

make the southern primate lord chancellor. The State had no 

longer anything' to fear from the restlessness or the encroachments 

of the Church, for the Church in its half- conscious weakness leant 

upon the support of the State, and had little wish to assert itself 

ag'ainst the secular power. There was little energy and small wish 

for reform, though the abuses of the Church were great, and a few 

earnest men were still found who were anxious to make things 

qoo 



1485.] BRITAIN IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 301 

"better. It was not so much, the corruption as the worldliness 
of the Church that was so conspicuous. There were few spiritual 
leaders of the people, and the most active and public-spirited of the 
bishops were those who lavished their wealth on pious foundations, 
on erecting magnificent colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, and in 
building schools to supply them with scholars. 

3. In the universities also there was the same want of life and 
freshness. After the silencing of WycKffe, Oxford sank back into 
orthodoxy, but showed little energy and produced few r^^^ ^^^_ 
noteworthy T\T.'iters or thinkers. Both Oxford and versities 
Cambridge were adorned with magnificent buildings, and learn- 
great and weU-endowed colleges, and stately and well- *'^^* 
stocked libraries. Conspicuous among these new foundations were 
New College, at Oxford, the creation of Bishop WiUiam of Wyke- 
ham, and King's College, at Cambridg'e, which was established by 
Henry vi. Both the bishop and the king founded great schools in 
connection with their colleges, to supply them with students. Wyke- 
ham thus set up Winchester school, and Henry vr. Eton. But 
though such measures rendered the means of study more accessible, 
the spirit that inspired study was seldom very strong. The best 
thought and literature were outside the universities, which remained 
the homes of the decaying scholasticism of the Middle Ages. 

4. Deficient as was the fifteenth century in strenuous purpose and 
high ideals, its history is in no wise altogether a history of decline. 
Despite the fierce fighting at home and abroad, Eng- ppocnep'tv 
land did not altogether stand still. The quarrels of ©f the 
kings and nobles affected but little the life of the fifteenth 
ordinary man. Even during the Wars of the Roses century, 
the simple Englishman managed to till his farm and sell his goods, 
with little regard to the clash of party strife. Farmers throve by 
reason of good harvests and improvements in cultivation. Villein- 
age steadily died out because it was more profitable to cultivate the 
soil by means of free labour. In particular, the constant demand for 
English wool from the Netherlands made sheep-farming a profit- 
able business for farmer and landlord alike. All classes prospered 
through the increase of trade and the beginnings of our foreign 
commerce ; when Edward iv. began to bring back order and strong 
government, progress became rapid. Population increased greatly, 
though it was still not very high, and England probably numbered 
at the end of our period about four million inhabitants. 

5. In the towns trade was brisk and increasing. It was the 
time of the greatest influence of the craft-guilds. These were clubs 



302 BRITAIN IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY [1399- 

or societies formed by members of eacb of tbe cliief trades practised 
witbin a town. Tbej served as benefit societies to shield tbeir 

members from misfortunes, and as social clubs whicb. 
ad t^ade' celebrated boKdays by feasts, processions, and solemn 

services in cbnrcb. Besides tbns encouraging* seK- 
belp and good-fellowsbip, tbey kept prices steady, watcbed over the 
quality of the articles produced, and protected tbe guild brethren 
from undue competition and tbe cutting down of profits. Foreign 
commerce was on the increase, and at last a fair proportion of it 
was falling into English hands. In earlier days the Easterlings, 
or merchants from the Hanse towns of !N^orthern Germany, the 
Yenetians, and other Italians, had the bulk of English commerce 
in their own hands. Since the great naval victories of Edward iii. 
Englishmen took more readily to the sea. Shipbuilding developed, 
and numerous commercial treaties opened up foreign ports to 
English enterprise. The English merchants formed societies for 
mutual assistance. Of these the most famous was the society of 
the Merchant Adventurers, which set up its factories in the Scan- 
dinavian kingdoms, and began to compete successfully with the 
Hanse merchants for the trade of the Baltic and ISTorth Sea. 
London was crowded with ships, and flourished exceedingly. Bristol, 
the chief western port, prospered on account of the Irish trade, and 
obtained a large share of the commerce with Iceland, whose stormy 
seas were a rare school of seamanship. The export of wool, still 
our chief product, was mainly conducted through Calais, the seat 
of the staple, and now a thoroughly English town. As the open 
door through which English wool was exported to the clothing 
towns of the Netherlands, it was as important in commerce as it 
was in politics as the gate which opened up France to the invasion 
of English armies. 

6. The increased prosperity of the towns and country alike was 
seen in the increasing number and splendour of the churches and 
^ , p public buildings. A large number of stately and mag- 

pendieulap nificent parish churches were erected all over the land, 
apehitee- They were built in the Perpendicular style of Gothic 

architecture, which continued to be the one fashion of 
building until the middle of the sixteenth century. The later Per- 
pendicular buildings were even more costly and spacious than those 
of the reign of Edward iii., and were infinitely more numerous. One 
feature of the style was the erection of beautiful and richly adorned 
towers ; others were the magnificent timber roofs, or the fantastic 
and elaborate stone vaidting, in which ornament and decoratioii 



BRITAIN IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 303 

were pursued for tlieir own sake. Tlie culmination of this is to be 
found in the fan tracery of the vaults of Henry vi/s chapel of 
King's College, Cambridge, or Henry vii.'s chapel at the east end 
of Westminster Abbey, both characteristic buildings of the period. 
Though this style is less piu*e than the earlier Gothic, it is still 
very rich, impressive, and magnificent. Nor were churches, colleges, 
and monasteries the only structures which men now set up. Private 
houses were now built in a more durable and comfortable fashion, 
and even the warlike nobles gave up erecting gioomy 
castles for their abodes, preferring in their stead large, K,^^tf i^ 
well - lighted, and roomy mansions, which, though 
following the lines of the old castles, and capable of standing* a 
siege, were built with a primary regard for the comfort of those 
living in them rather than with the view of keeping out the enemy. 
Magnificent specimens of the castellated mansions of the nobles of 
this period are to be seen in the ruined houses of Tattershall, in 
Lincolnshire, and Hurstmonceaux, in Sussex, both of which belong 
to the reign of Henry vi. They are both remarkable as being 
among the earliest brick buildings erected in England since Roman 
times. By the end of the century the fashion of building in brick 
had become common, and made it easier to erect substantial houses 
in districts where stone was scarce or bad. 

7. New styles in dress and customs showed how general was the 
change of taste. Armour became more costly and elaborate than 
ever, and efforts were made to strengthen it in such 

a fashion as would protect the wearer from bullets and Armour and 
arrows as well as from the thrust or cut of lance or 
sword. The use of firearms became more g'eneral, and light hand- 
guns, the predecessors of the later musket, were beginning to come 
into use. Yet the long-bow, now at its prime, was still generally 
preferred in England to these clumsy and uncertain weapons. It 
was abroad rather than at home that new experiments were now made 
in the art of war. The French adopted the use of artillery more 
readily than the English, and it was by reason of the excellence 
and number of their cannon that they discomfited the long uncon- 
querable English archer, notably at the battle of Castillon, which 
closed the Hundred Years' War. 

8. The literature of the fiiteenth century reflects the general 
character of the age. Since the death of Chaucer there was no 
more poetry of the highest rank, but the style of 

Chaucer was imitated by a whole school of versifiers, 

who •rn.-ote fluently, freely, and vigorously, though with little 



304 BRITAIN IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY [1399- 

originality or artistic gift. Tlie best poetry of tlie time is to be 

found in the larg'e number of anonymous ballads, some of which. 

are of a high order of excellence. Another feature was the growth 

of a popular drama, which was chiefly represented by 

Poetpyand relio-ious dramas called Mysteries, or Miracle-plays, 

the drama. ^ ^ , j -, , . . c^ . ^ r j ' 

wherein enacted stories irom Scripture, or sermons 

in yerse, setting forth the mysteries of the faith. It became the 

custom for the townsmen to amuse themselves on holidays by 

witnessing miracle-plays of tliis kind, acted in temporary theatres 

erected in the streets and public squares. "We have still extant the 

cycles of dramas that delighted the citizens of Chester, York, and 

Wakefield during this period. 

9. Prose was better than poetry. There was a larger reading 

public, but it was not very particular as to the quality of what it 

read so long as it was amusing or instructive. The 
Ppose. . . 

monastic chronicles became few and feeble, as the 

vig'our of the relig-ious life declined ; but as a compensation great 
men began to employ private historiographers, who set down in prose 
or verse the deeds of their patrons. These men were sometimes the 
heralds or chaplains of their employers, and sometimes foreig^ners, 
especially ItaKans, who were brought into the country by noblemen 
and prelates anxious to show their sympathy for the wider and 
fuller literary movements of lands beyond the sea. Humphrey, duke 
of Grloucester, was the most bountiful and broad-minded of these 
noble patrons of letters. He had in his ]Day an Italian who called 
himself Titus Livius, and wrote at his master's bidding a Latin life 
of Henry v. The Percies employed an Englishman named John 
Harding to compose a metrical history of their house, wherein he 
took good care not to minimize the glories of the disting'uished family 
to which he owed his bread. It is a sign of the greater extension 
of knowledge and the spread of the practice of composition that we 
have for the first time collections of private and familiar correspond- 
ence, which give us a much more vivid idea of what ordinary men 
thoug'ht and said than can be gathered from the stiff and formal 
official letters of state which alone survive from earlier ages. 
Conspicuous among such collections are the Paston Letters, the 
correspondence of a pushing and rising* family of Norfolk squires, 
which g'ive us far the best picture that we have of the state of 
society during the Wars of the E-oses. 

10, The increased demand for books led to the existence of a 
large class of scriveners and stationers, whose business was to copy 
out and sell volumes for which there was a constant popular 



-1485.] BRITAIN IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 305 

demand. Tlie skill sliown by these men was great, and they multi- 
plied books with as much faithfulness and quickness as were possible, 
so long" as every fresh example had to be written out by 
hand. But the impossibility of jiroducing books by the pead?ng° 
laborious process of copying them out in manuscript 
set men's brains to work to devise means of multiplying them by 
mechanical devices. In the course of this century the invention of 
'printing was soon to make obsolete the painful art of the scrivener. 

11. The first books produced by mechanical means were what 
were called hlock-hoohs. In these the matter which had to be 
reproduced was written on flat blocks of wood, and The inven- 
then the rest of the surface of the block was cut away tion of 

so that the pattern written stood out in reKef, and ^^^^ ^"^* 
when smeared over with oily ink, could be pressed or printed upon 
pieces of paper, much as wood- cuts were multiplied in later times. 
This method was only possible for short works of considerable 
circulation, since it was slow and costly, and the blocks were useless 
save for the one purpose for which they were designed. For about 
a century, however, hlock-hooks were the only alternatives to manu- 
scripts, until about the middle of the fifteenth century, the ingenuity 
of John Gutenberg, a citizen of Mainz, in G-ermany, devised the 
method of casting* movable types in metal to correspond to the 
various letters and characters. These types could then be set up to 
represent any combination of letters, and when the copies needed 
were printed off, the type could be distributed and rearranged to 
make a fresh book. Gutenberg's great invention soon spread aU. over 
Europe, and that the more rapidly since the first book he printed, 
a Latin Bible, issued in 1455, was of such extraordinary beauty as 
to rival or surpass the best type of manuscript. The result of the 
spread of printing was that books became suddenly cheapened and 
multiplied, and that a great impetus was given to reading and study. 

12. In Edward iv.'s time printing was brought into England 
by a Kentishman named William Caxton, a shrewd and successful 
merchant, settled for many years in Flanders, who -yyiji- 
learnt in the Netherlands and in Germany the new caxton, 
art about which aU interested in books were talk- the first 
ing. He bought types from a Flemish printer, and, English 
about 1474, produced with them at Bruges, in 
Flanders, the first printed books in English. These were a 
romance caUed a Recuyell of the Histories of Troy, and a treatise 
on The Game and Play of Chess. In 1477, Caxton went back to 
England, and set up his press under the shadow of Westminster 



306 BRITAIN IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY [1399- 

^Ibbey, wliere lie printed and publislied many books, both, in English 
and Latin. Caxton was not only a good business man but a com- 
petent scholar, who wrote prefaces to his books and translated 
many of them into English. Edward iv. and Hichard iii. and 
the more cultivated nobles were his patrons. After his death 
in 1491, his press went to his pupil, Wynkyn de Worde. Other 
men followed their example, and before the end of the century, the 
art of printing was firmly established in England. So ]30werful 
was the press by this time, that the king and the Church would 
allow only those books to be printed which had obtained a licence. 

1 3. One feature of this period is the growth of an independent 
English-speaking state in Scotland. So constant was the hostility 
of the northern and southern kingdoms that it was 
in the ^^ France rather than to its neighbour that the little 

fifteenth Scottish kingdom looked for support and guidance. It 
century. -^g^^g characteristic that, for example, Scottish buildings 
which in earlier ages had been erected after the same fashion as 
those in England, now followed the French rather than the 
English style. Thus there is hardly any Pevpendicular Gothic 
in Scotland, thoug'h builders were as busy beyond the Tweed as 
in England during the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 
The Scottish churches of tliis time follow in preference the Flam- 
boyant or late Gothic of France, which differs in some ways more 
widely from contemporary English art than any other medieeval 
style. A comparison of the Flamboyant churches of Melrose or St. 
Giles, Edinburgh, with the English churches of the same date, will 
show how deeply divided against itself English-speaking Britain 
had become. It was the same with domestic architecture, where the 
Scottish barons erected for themselves imitations of French castles 
rather than English manor-houses. When in 1508 the art of 
printing was tardily introduced into Scotland, it was in France that 
the earliest Scottish printers learnt their craft. In law, in the 
same way, the Scots looked to France and the Roman Civil Law 
rather than to the customary law of England, which was originally 
common to all parts of the English-speaking race. In literature, 
also, the court speech of Edinburg-li was, as we have seen, the old 
Northumbrian dialect, and not the Midland tongue which Caxton, 
like Chaucer, adopted as the most aj)propriate for English literary 
speech. Yet the ties of common language stiR counted for some- 
thing. James i,, a cultivated and intelligent king, brought back 
from his long English captivity a sincere love for Chaucer's poetry, 
and perhaps wrote the poem, called the Kingis Quhair, in the style of 



-1485.] BRITAIN IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 307 

the soutliern master. From this time the fashion of Chaucer took 
a deep hold on Scottish men of letters. All through the fifteenth 
centuiy Scots poets, like Robert Henryson, set forth in the northern 
form of English spirited imitations and adaptations of Chaucer's 
themes and metres, which show^ that there was more true poetic 
spii'it to the north than to the south of the Tweed. The reigns 
of the early Stewart kings witnessed in this, and in many other 
ways, a wonderful growth of civilization, order, and prosperity. 
Historians of the school of Barbour described the stirring deeds of 
the heroes of the "War of Independence, and a wandering minstrel 
called Blind Harry wrote a rude i)oetic romance on the exjiloits of 
Wallace, the great popular hero of the north. The same period 
also witnessed the establishment of three Scottish universities at 
St. Andrews, Aberdeen, and Glasgow, so that the northern scholar 
had no longer to leave his own land to obtain a learned education. 
Save in the wild Hig'hlands beyond the Forth, where the un- 
changing Celtic civilization still went on without a rival, Scotland, 
like Engiand, was becoming awake to the new issues that were 
soon to excite the interest of all Europe. 

14. The changes which we have sketched show that fifteenth- 
century Britain was by no means standing still, though it was not 
now, as it had been, fully abreast of the Continent, jj^g ^^^ 
Everywhere the Middle Ages were slowly dying away, of the 
It was an age of discoveries, of new inventions, of Middle 
greater love of knowledge, and of a wider interest in ^ * 
man and nature. Before long, Columbus was to make his way to the 
new world called America. It was already the time of the Revival 
of Letters, or the Renascence- —thsit is, the new birth of learning 
and thought. None of the new movements had as yet reached 
Britain, but elsewhere, and especially in Italy, there had been won- 
derful j)rogress made in many directions. Even in our island 
some men were beginning to be interested in the new tendencies. 
Those who read deeply began to tliink for themselves. When men 
began to think for themselves, modern times were already at hand. 
Books recommended for the Further Study of the Period 1399-1485 

Oman's Histonj of England, 1377-1485, in Longmans' Political History of 
England, vol. iv. ; Stubbs' Constitutional England, vol. iii., whicli includes 
the best survey of the political historj' of the period ; James Gairdner's Houses 
of Lancaster and York (Longmans' Epochs of Modern History) ; A. G. Bradley's 
Owen Glyndwr and C. L. Kingsford's Henry V. (both in Heroes of the Nations) ; 
Oman's' WarwicJc the King Maker, a spirited sketch (Macmillan's Men of 
Action). For Caxton and his successors, see E. G. Duff's Earh/ Printed Books, 
cb. viii.-xi. The Paston Letters, edited with valuable introductions by James 
Gairdner, throw a flood of light on the political and social historj' of the period. 



BOOK V 

THE TUDORS (1485-1603) 

CHAPTER I 
HENRY VII. (1485-1509; 

Chief Dates : 

1485. Accession of Henry vii. 

148^. Imposture of Lambert Simnel. 

1492. Treaty of Etaples ; beginning of Warbeck's imposture. 

1494. PojTiings' Law. 

1496. The Magnus Intercursus, 

1499. Execution of Warbeck and "Warwick. 

1503. Marriage of James IV. and Margaret Tudor. 

1509. Death of Henry vii. 

1. Henry vii. had been sclioolecl hj his early trials in prison and 
exile to repress his feelings, and to regard his own interests as his 

primary care. Silent, cold, suspicious, and reserved, 
Henpv Tlf ° -^^ ^^^ never ahle to make himself popular, though he 

delighted in fine clothes and the pag'eantry of his 
office. Prudent, careful, and politic, he was remorseless to those who 
stood in his way, though never capricious or bloodthirsty. G-reedy 
as he was of wealth and power, he refused to regard himself as the 
mere chief of the Lancastrian faction, and did his best to make 
himself king over the whole nation. One of his first acts was to 
marry the Lady Elizabeth of York, the daughter of Edward iv., 
and, by her brothers' disappearance, the nearest representative of 
the house of York. He hoped thereby that the friends of Edward 
IV., who had hated the usurpation of Kichard, would thus become 
his supporters. Anyhow it was certain that the children of Henry 
and Elizabeth would have a clearer title to the throne than any 
king after Richard 11. 

2. The long faction fight could not be ended in a day, and the 
S08 



-1487. J HENRY VII. 309 

first years of tlie new reign seemed but a continuation of the old 
struggles of tlie rival houses. Henry had to reward his followers, 
and though he deprived few Yorkists of their estates ^ ,. 
and titles, the return of the Lancastrian exiles, and of the old 
the elevation of his friends and kinsfolk to high Pai'ty 
rank, naturally changed the balance of parties. The 
Yorkists at once sought to redress their fortunes by rebellion, and 
Henry VII. soon found, like Henry iv., that his real difGlculty was 
not in conquering England, but in holding it. 

3. The first Yorkist rising was in 1486, when Lord Level and 
the Staffords, the kinsmen of the late duke of Buckingham, broke 
into rebellion at once in different parts of the country. 

They were easily put down. Without a leader, it was ^P";*^ Level's 
hard for the Yorkists to act together. Their natural 
head was the wife of the Lancastrian king, while their nearest male 
representative, Edward, earl of Warwick, the son of the murdered 
Clarence and a daughter of the king-maker, was detained a close 
prisoner in the Tower by the suspicious Henry. 

4. Outside England, circumstances were more favourable to the 
Yorkists. Edward iv.'s sister, Margaret of Burgundy, the widow 
of Charles the Rash, still possessed great influence in Lambert 
the, ^N'etherlands, and encouraged every plot against Simnel, ^ 
the hated Tudors. Thoug-h Ireland was for all prac- ^'*^^* 

tical purposes independent of England, and ruled by its own clan 
chieftains and feudal lords, yet the house of York, as heir of the 
Mortimers, had a strong position among the leading Irish families. 
There were many Irish barons eager to make loyalty to York an 
excuse for throwing off even nominal obedience to the English 
king. Chief among these was the earl of Kildare, the head of the 
Leinster branch of the great Norman house of Fitzgerald. Kildare 
had been made deputy, or governor, of Ireland by Richard iii., 
and was no friend to Henry Tudor. Though the new king had 
not ventured to take away from him his office, he had set over him 
as lord lieutenant his uncle, Jasper Tudor, now duke of Bedford. 
This so much irritated Kildare that he gladly fell in with the 
scheme hatched by Margaret of Burgundy to supply the Yorkists 
with a pretext for a fresh rebellion. In 1487 there landed in 
Ireland a pretty boy, about twelve years old, accompanied by a 
priest, who gave out that the child was Edward, earl of Warwick, 
who, he said, had escaped from the Tower. The Fitzgeralds at 
once took up the cause of the youth, and had him crowned king in 
Dublin. Really, the pretender was one Lambert Simnel, the son of 



3IO HENRY VII. [1487- 

an Oxford organ-maker. Having no true prince in wliose name 
tliej could figlit, tlie Yorkists set np tkis impostor as tkeir candidate 
for tke tkrone. It was easy for Henry to defeat so transparent a 
fraud. He took tke real Warwick out of prison, so tkat tke 
Londoners could see for tkemselves tkat tke boy-king in Ireland 
was a counterfeit. Before long, Simnel's friends were reinforced 
by tke exile Lovel and a troop of G-erman mercenaries, under 
Martin Sckwarz. Tkey were now emboldened to cross tke Ckannel 
and try tkeir fortunes in England. Bnt few Englisk joined tke 
motley kost of Irisk, Grermans, and Yorkists. Tke invaders were 
easily defeated at tke battle of Stoke, near IN^ewark, and tke pre- 
tended Warwick fell into tke king's kands. Henry skowed kis 
contempt for tke impostor by giving kim a free pardon, and 
making kim first tnrnspit in tke royal kitcken. Henry was, kow- 
ever, still so weak tkat ke forgave Kildare, tke real autlior of tke 
revolt. 

5. Dnring tke first years of kis reign, Henry kad many troubles 
abroad. Besides tke old duckess of Burgundy, botk Scotland and 

France were unfriendly to kim. To meet tke kostility 

TheBpeton ^f Ckarles viii. of France, Henry made an alliance 

succession . . 

and the witk Duke Francis of Brittany, wkp was at war witk 

treaty of i^is overlord. However, in 1488, Francis died, leaving 
1492 ^* ^® -^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ daug-kter named Anne. Tke 

Frenck now sougkt to marry tke Duckess Anne to 
tkeir young king, Ckarles viii., and so unite Brittany and France. 
Tkis alarmed tke okie^^ ©nemies of France, Ferdinand, king of 
Spain, and Maximilian c)f Austria, king of tke Romans, wko, by 
marrying tke daug-kter of Ckarles tke E,ask, kad establisked kim- 
self as lord of tke Netkerlands. Henry ventured to ally kimself 
witk tkese princes against tke Frenck, and sent small forces to 
Flanders and to Brittany. Tke Frenck now overran Brittany, 
and in 1491 Anne was married to Ckarles viii. jN^ext year (1492) 
Henry levied a larg*e army, and landed in France. Like Edward 
IV. in 1475, ke skowed little eagerness to figkt, and willingly made 
peace witk tke Frenck in tke treaty of Etajples, by wkick tke 
Frenck paid kim a good round sum of money to ensure tke witk- 
drawal of kis army. Tkis inglorious retreat of Henry disgusted 
kis allies witkout conciliating kis enemies, 

6. Tke friendlessness of Henry outside kis kingdom soon bore 
fruit in a new imposture, muck more formidable tkan tke weak 
attempt of Lambert Simnel. A little before tke treaty of Etaples 
tkere landed in Ireland a youtk of noble presence and attractive 



-1496.] HENRY VII. 3II 

manners, who declared tliat lie was RicLard, duke of York, tke 
younger of tke sons of Edward iy. wkom Rickard 11 1. kad immured 
in tke Tower, He said tkat ke kad escaped wken kis pepkin 
brotker Edward v. was slain, and kad now come to Warbeek, 
claim kis inkeritance. In trutk, ke was Perkin War- 1492. 
beck, a native of Tournai, in tke Ifetkerlands, and inspired, like 
Simnel, by tke bitter malice of Margaret of Burgundy. Warbeek 
played kis part so well tkat many people konestly believed in kim, 
and for seven years ke was a source of constant anxiety to Henry vii. 

7. Moved by Henry's clemency on a. former occasion, Kildare 
and tke Eitzgeralds gave a colder welcome to Warbeek tkan 
to Simnel. Tke new impostor soon left Ireland. 

Ckarles viii, recognized kim, and invited kim to of Sip 
Prance, wkere many of tke exiled Yorkists gatkered William 
round kim. Driven from France by tke treaty of jlgc^^^' 
Etaples, ke found a refuge witk Margaret of Bui-gundy, 
wko declared kim to be ker nepkew. Meanwkile, Yorkist con- 
spirators were active in England. In 1495 tkese were joined by 
Sir WilHam Stanley, wko, witk kis brotker, in 1485 made earl 
of Derby, kad been ckiefly instrumental in gaining Henry tke 
tkrone. Like Hotspur under Henry iv., Stanley was discontented 
witk tke rewards given to kim by tke king, and was now eager to 
ukdo tke work of kis own kands. His plot was discovered ; ke 
confessed kis gniilt, and was jiut to deatk. 

8. Disappointed at tke failure of kis friends, Warbeek strove to 

take kis destinies in kis own kands. Little success attended kis 

gallant attempts. He failed to effect a landing in Kent ; ,„ , , , 

• Mr apbeck s 
anotker effort to win over Ireland was attended witk exclusion 

indifferent success. Meanwkile, Henry kad cultivated from 

tke friendskip of botk Ckarles viii. and Maximilian scotland."^*^ 

witk suck success tkat tke Continent was kencefortk 

barred to tke impostor. James iv., king of Scots, was stiU Henry's 

enemy. In 1496 ke invited Warbeek to Scotland, maii-ied kim to 

kis cousin, tke Lady Catkarine Grordon, and invaded tke nortk of 

England, proclaiming tkat ke was come to overtkrow tke usurper 

Henry Tudor, and upkold tke just claims of Rickard iv. No 

Englisk would join a pretender backed up by tke Scots, and James 

was forced to retire witkout daring to figkt a battle. Next year a 

tkreat of invasion from England compelled tke king of Scot« to 

dismiss Warbeek from kis counti-y. Once more tke impostor took 

refuge in Ireland, but soon found tkat kis ckance was as kopeJ.ess 

tkere as in tke nortk. 



312 HENRY VII. [1496- 

9. In 1496 Henry vii. made tlie Scots inroad an excuse for 
exacting lieavy taxes from his subjects. In 1497 the Cornislimen, 

who had no fear of the Scots, rose in revolt, and, 
The Cornish headed "by a lawyer named Flammock, marched to 
pising, 1497, London, and encamped on Blackheath, where, after 
execution hard fighting, they were scattered. Warbeck took the 
of Wapbeek bold course of landing in Cornwall, hoping that the 
Warwick inhabitants of that shire, inspired by the spirit which 
1499. had sent them to Blackheath, would welcome him, and 

rebel once more in his favour. He soon found enough 
followers to march eastward and besiege Exeter. Failing to capture 
the capital of the west, he resumed his eastern march as far as 
Tannton, where a royal army stopped his further progress. Seeing 
that battle was inevitable the next day, Warbeck lost heart. 
Leaving his followers to their fate, he took sanctuary with the 
Cistercian monks of Beaulieu in Hampshire. The Cornishmen, 
abandoned by their leader, went back to their homes, and so the 
dang-er to Henry's throne was over. Before long Warbeck was 
persuaded to surrender, on the promise of his life being spared. 
He was imprisoned in the Tower, where he made friends with the 
captive earl of Warwick. In 1499 both Warbeck and Warwick 
were condemned and executed, on a charge of an attempt to seize 
the Tower and overthrow the king. Whether guilty or not, their 
removal deprived the Yorkist party of its last sorry leaders, and 
firmly established Henry Tudor on the throne. The Wars of the 
Roses were at last over. 

10. Henry had perceived that his chief danger from Warbeck 
came from the unfriendliness of foreign powers. He therefore 

strove to conciliate the chief princes of Europe, and 

The Magnus ^q have seen how successfully he had cut at the roots 

Intcpcupsxis ^ 

1496, and ' of the impostor's strength. The treaty of Etaples had 

the Malus driven Warbeck from France. It was a harder busi- 
1506 *^^^^"^' -"^^^^ ^^ remove him from Flanders, since Maximilian 
declared that the dowager duchess was free to do what 
she liked in her own lands. Henry had, however, a useful weapon 
against him in the close commercial relations that still bound 
Flanders to England. By prohibiting all trade between the two 
countries, he soon persuaded Maximilian to keep Warbeck out of 
his dominions. In 1496 the relations between Maximilian and 
Henry were made very cordial by a treaty called the Magnus, Inter- 
cursus, or G-reat Intercourse, by which trade was resumed, and both 
princes promised not to support each other's enemies. Ten years 



-I50I.] HENRY VII. 313 

later, in 1506, Maximilian's son, the Arcliduke Philip, the real ruler 
of the Netherlands, was driven by bad weather to take refuge in 
an English port on his way to claim the throne of Spain. Henry 
treated Philip with all honour, but would not suffer him to 
continue his journey until he had signed a new treaty of commerce. 
This favoured English traders so much that the Flemings called 
it the Malus Intercursus — that is, the Bad Intercourse. 

11. Foreign politics were more important than at an earlier 

time, since the leading monarchs of Europe were now so powerful 

that they had plenty of time to intervene in each other's 

affairs, and their mutual iealousies and alliances led to J[ 

'' European 

the beginning of what was called the European political 

Political System, in which the chief princes strove to system and 
maintain a balance of power between each other, and ^f power 
prevent any one state from attaining such greatness 
as to make it dangerous to its neighbours. After the conquest of 
Brittany, Charles viii. of France invaded Italy in 1494, and made 
himself for a time king of Naples. This triumph was but short- 
lived, for the Italians contrived to drive him out, and his rivals 
sided with them through their fear of the French. Conspicuous 
among the enemies of France were the Emperor Maximilian i. 
and Ferdinand, king of Aragon. Maximilian was a vain, showy, 
and moneyless prince, whose power was not very great, Ferdinand 
of Aragon was the wisest and strongest king of his day. He had 
married Isabella, queen of Castile, and the union of the two chief 
kingdoms of the peninsula under this couple was the beginning of 
the great Spanish monarchy. 

12. Always suspicious of France, Henry made it the main 
object of his policy to win Ferdinand and Isabella to his side. He 
servilely followed their lead, and sought to marry his -j-j^g Spanish 
eldest son, Arthur, prince of Wales, to their younger alliance, 
daughter, the Infanta Catharine of Aragon. After ^°"^* 

five years' negotiations, the wedding was completed in 1501. Next 
year, however, Arthur died. Henry was so anxious to keep up the 
Spanish connection and to retain Catharine's liberal wedding 
portion in England, that he proposed that the widowed princess 
should marry his younger son Henry, who was now made Princf> 
of Wales. As a marriage of a man to his brother's widow was 
prohibited by the Church, Henry obtained from Pope Julius 11. a 
dispensation which suspended the law in this particular case. Thus 
Catharine remained in England, though several years elapsed before 
she and Henry were actually united. Meanwhile the dependence 



314 HENRY VII. [1503- 

of Henry on Ferdinand continued. The Archdiike PTiilip, who 
had married Catharine's elder sister, Joan, and so became king* of 
Castile on Isabella's death, died in 1506. Soon after his visit to 
England, Henry, already a widower, proposed to Ferdinand to 
marry Joan of Castile, though she was a madwoman. 

13. Moreover, in 1503, Henry vii. wedded his elder daughter 
Margaret to James iv,, king of Scots, who had up to then been 
The Scottish g'^nerally hostile. Henry hoped to wean him from 
marriage, that close connection with France that every Scottish 
1503. monarch had cultivated since the days of Edward i. 
Though the first hopes of this were disappointed, this marriage 
was so far successful that a hundred years later a descendant of 
James and Margaret united the English and Scottish thrones. 

14. Despite Henry vii.'s intrigues and alliances, the power of 
England abroad was still insignificant. It was something-, how- 
Henry's ever, that the Tudor king had shown that England 
domestic had once more a foreign policy, and was no longer in 
policy. jQ^^ state of impotence and isolation which she had 
occupied during the Wars of the Roses. Henry's best work, how- 
ever, was not abroad, but at home, where he gradually restored the 
royal power and put an end to the weak rule and confusion which 
had culminated in the struggle of Lancaster and York. Though 
he was a Lancastrian, he made no attempt to govern in the con- 
stitutional fashion of the three Henries who had preceded him. 
He preferred to base his rule on the model of Edward iv. He 
summoned parliament as seldom as he could, and did not scruple to 
disregard the law of Richard iii. by raising money by benevolences. 
He passed several wise laws, one of the most important being an 
act of 1495, by which it was declared that no one who obeyed the 
Idng who was reigning for the time being should be punished as a 
traitor, whether that king ruled with a good title or not. 

15. Henry vii. was fortunate in his ministers. His chief adviser, 
Cardinal Morton, who was both archbishop of Canterbury and lord 

chancellor, was much more of la statesman than an 
"dni^"teps ecclesiastic. Morton served the king too faithfully to 

be popular, and was particularly shrewd in filling the 
King's coffers by indirect devices that did not openly break the 
law. After his death, in 1500, Hichard Fox, bishop of Winchester, 
was one of Henry's chief advisers, but the most trusted confidants 
of the king's latter years were two men of lower rank, Edmund 
Dudley and Richard Empson. Denounced by the people as Henry's 
"horse-leeches and skin-shearers," they managed to fill both the 



-1509.] HENRY VII. 315 

king's pockets and their own by devices much more odious than 
any that Morton had indulg-ed in. Through their help, and 
through the rigid economy which never deserted him, Henry 
accumulated a store of treasure such as no previous English king 
had gathered together. 

16. Englishmen could afford to submit to Henry's exactions, 
since he kept the land in better order than it had known for a 
century. The chief trouble of fifteenth- century Reduction 
England had been in the inordinate power of the of the 
nobles. Henry was doing- a service to the people as ^jP^^^^J!^ 
well as to the throne when he devoted his best energies 

to compelling the turbulent nobles to obey the law like ordinary 
citizens. A chief means by which the nobles had defied the law was 
through the custom of livery and maintenance, whereby all who wore 
the badge or livery of a lord were bound to support him in all his 
quarrels, while the lord in return was bound to maintain his livery- 
men. This meant that he was to back them up in whatever trouble 
beset them, and either to coerce the law-courts not to pass sentences 
against them, or, if they were condemned, to see that the sentences 
against them were not carried out. Many statutes had been passed 
making Kvery and maintenance unlawful, but none of them had 
succeeded, since they were carried out by those very courts which 
were so powerless against the great nobles. In 1487 Henry passed 
a fresh act against livery and maintenance, by which a new court was 
established to carry out the law. This court consisted of ministers 
of state of such high rank that they were not amenable to the 
pressure which the nobles were so often able to exert against the 
judge and jury of an ordinary assize court. This body was one 
source of the famous Star Chamber, which was to serve later 
monarchs in such good stead. Through this new court, Henry's 
statute was carried out so thoroughly that the abuses of livery and 
maintenance were speedily ended. The fate of the nobles ruined in 
attempts to resist Henry showed that the mightiest barons were no 
longer above the law. In thus breaking down the power of the 
aristocracy, Henry vii. laid solid foundations for that Tudor 
despotism which attained its culminating point under Henry viii. 
and Elizabeth. 

17. Henry vii. also did a little to extend strong government to 
"Wales and Ireland. Proud of his Welsh descent, he Henry VII. 's 
called his eldest son after the famous British king Welsh and 
Arthur, and sent him to rule his principality from ^^'^^ Policy. 
Ludlow, the old home of the Mortimers. The council of advisers to 



3l6 HENRY VII. [1509, 

the young- prince became tlie nucleus of the body which in the next 
reign became the Council of Wales. In Ireland more immediate 
steps were necessary, and after Warbeck's first attempted landing-, 
Henry deprived Kildare of his deputyship, and sent Sir Edward 
Poynings to Ireland as his successor. A plain Englishman, 
superior to the local feuds of the land he ruled, Poynings passed in 
1494 the famous Irish act of parliament, called Poynings' Law, by 

which all English laws were declared to be of force in 
Law^^l494 Ireland, and the Irish parliament was forbidden to 

pass any measure until it had received the approval of 
the king's council in England. Thus Ireland was made definitely 
dependent on the English government of the day. Henry had not, 
however, power to go far in the direction thus defined by Poynings. 
Before long he again made Kildare his deputy, thinking that the 
cheapest way of keeping some sort of order was to invest one of 
the Irish magnates with the exercise of the royal authority. " AH 
Ireland," he was told, " could not rule the earl of Kildare." Henry 
is reported to have answered, " Then let the earl of Kildare rule 
all Ireland." Thus Ireland stiU remained practically independent 
under its own clan chieftains and feudal barons. 

18. In this as in so many other matters, Henry vii. was only 
sowing that others might reap. But, when prematurely aged by 

the toils of statecraft, the first Tudor king died in 
Henrv VII 1509, he had established the infant dynasty on such a 

solid basis that his son and successor became from the 
moment of his accession one of the strongest of English monarchs. 



CHAPTER II 
HENRY VIII. AND WOLSEY (1505^1529) 

Chief Dates : 

1509. Accession of Henry viii. 

1511. The Holy League. 

1513. Battles of the Spurs and Flodden. 

1515. Francis i., king of France ; Utopia published. 

ISI7' Beginning of the Reformation in Germany. 

1519. Charles v., emperor. 

1521-1525. War with France. 

1521. Fall of Buckingham. 

1525. Battle of Pavia. 

1527. Henry applies for a divorce. 

1529. Fall of Wolsey. 

1. Henry viii. was only eighteen years old when he succeeded 
his father as king of England. Tall, robust, and well-built, with 
a round and fair-complexioned face, and short-cut, 
bright, auburn hair, Henry was the handsomest Henpv^V7II° 
sovereign in Christendom. He was a splendid athlete, ' , 

an accomplished horseman, an enthusiast for the chase, and an 
excellent tennis-player. He looked every inch a king, with his 
stately form set off by gorgeous attire, glittering with jewels and 
gold. Though tenacious of his dignity, his friendly hearty manner 
svon him the love of rich and poor alike. Carefully educated by 
his father, he played and sang well, spoke several languages fluently, 
and delig'hted in the society of scholars. Though seemingly ab- 
sorbed in a round of pleasure and amusement, he never forgot that 
his real work was to rule England. His strength of will and 
stubbornness of purpose made him one of the very ablest of our 
kings. He knew what he wanted, and had few scruples as to how 
to get it. A shrewd judge of character, he chose his ministers 
well, and used them to the uttermost. He was selfish, greedy, 
hard-hearted, without the faintest gleam of pity or of softness. 
Ever stern and relentless, he became in later life a cruel and 
hateful tyrant; but he never quite lost the love of his subjects, 

317 



3l8 HENRY VIIL AND WOLSEY [1509- 

and tliere always remained, amidst the worst excesses of Ms later 
life, some toucli of Ms lionlike will and splendid force of purpose. 

2. Henry was tlie first "king since Henry v. whose title no man 
seriously disputed. Inheriting the fruits of Ms father's painful and 

laborious policy, and the great store of treasure that 
of Empson ^^ elder king had hoarded up, Henry aspired to play 
and Dudley, a leading part in European politics. He felt th^t he 

could take up a bolder and more popular line than 
Henry vii. He strove to win over the people to Ms side, while he 
completed his father's work of crushing the old nobility and the 
great churchmen, who had so long stood in the way of the royal 
power. His ambition was to rule England as a strong but popular 
and national despot, and his people, long accustomed to find in the 
kiag their best protection against aristocratic licence and misrule, 
gave him a hearty and ungrudging support. In Ms eagerness to 
win popular favour, he sent to the Tower Empson and Dudley, the 
hated agents of Ms father's grasping extortion. At first they were 
charged with tyranmsing over the king's subjects in their collection 
of the taxes, but this true accucation was dropped for a foolish 
charge of treason and conspiracy against the king. Early in 1510 
parliament passed an act of attainder against them as traitors. A 
few months later both were beheaded on Tower Hill. 

3. Though remorselessly sacrificing to popular hatred the most 
notorious of his father's subordinate agents, Henry continued in 

office the tried miMsters who had really fasMoned 
ministe^s^ Henry vii.'s policy. They were mainly bishops and 

nobles of Mgh position, but of no great ability or 
energy. The foremost among them were Richard Fox, bishop of 
Winchester, and Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey. Fox was a good 
and pious man, but anxious to give up politics ; and Surrey, though 
a capable soldier, and the only conspicuous representative of the 
older nobles who remained unswervingly faithful to the king, was 
not clever enough to be able to give effect to the ambitious schemes 
of his young master. To carry out these an abler and more 
strenuous helper was necessary, and Henry soon found a mimster 
after Ms own heart in Thomas Wolsey. The son of a substantial 
Ipswich merchant, Wolsey early distinguished himseK at Oxford, 

but soon abandoned the student's career to become 
Wolsev chaplain to the archbishop of Canterbury. Bishop Fox, 

who thought well of him, gave Mm a footing at court, 
and under Henry vii. he had shown his capacity in several embassies. 
Under the young king he became dean of Lincoln and almoner. 



-151 I.J HENRY VIII. AND WOLSEY 319 

Fox's gradual withdrawal from politics gave Wolsey his oppor- 
tunity, and the growing complication of foreign politics soon made 
him indispensable to Henry. In 1514 he became bishop of LincoLn, 
and, before the end of the year, archbishop of York. In 1515 he 
was made lord chancellor, and the pope sent him a cardinal's hat. 
For sixteen years Wolsey was supreme both in Church and State. 
Fresh preferment was heaped upon him, until he enjoyed the 
revenues of three or four bishoprics and of one of the richest 
abbeys in England. He lived on terms of intimate friendship with 
Henry, and though never gainsaying the fierce king's wishes, was 
able to control his policy as no other minister of the reign ever 
did. He was an indefatigable worker, and kept all the business 
of the state under his own control. Equally competent to organize 
an army and to conduct a subtle diplomatic intrigue, he was alike 
able to formulate a great policy and to plod patiently through the 
dull details of administration. He affected a pomp and ostentation 
such as the proudest nobles did not aspire to ; but he posed as the 
friend of the poor, listening patiently to their lawsuits, and dealing 
out to them even-handed justice. The great nobles both envied 
him and hated him, recognizing in him the chief insti-ument em- 
ployed by the king for their abasement. He had few of the strict 
virtues of the churchman, though he was a munificent patron of 
learning, and wished to see the clergy better educated and more 
energetic. He had something of the pride, the greed, the ostenta- 
tion, and love of pleasure of his master ; but he had a clear vision 
of the right policy for his country, and without his rare gifts the 
young king's reign would have been shorn of much of its glory. 

4. The ability and energy of Wolsey were of special service to 
his master in the region of foreign politics. Under Henry vii. 
England had been of little account in European 
affairs; and the old king's fidelity to the Spanish poj^^ifg" 
alliance had met with but scanty recompense from 
Ferdinand of Aragon. As in the days of Henry vii., the rivalry 
of Louis XII. of France and of Ferdinand of Spain was the 
central fact of the European situation, and Italy had become more 
than ever the prize of victory, Louis, as duke of Milan, was the 
chief power in Northern Italy, and Ferdinand, as king of Naples 
and Sicily, dominated the south of the peninsula. Both princes 
threw themselves into the complicated intrigues of the Italian 
statesmen, and shared their fears of the aggressions of the wise, 
strong, and wealthy republic of Yenice. So far did tliis fear lead 
them, that in 1508 Ferdinand and Louis forgot their rivalry for a 



320 HENRY VII I. AND WOLSEY [151 1- 

moment, and united witli the Emperor Maximilian i. in the League 
of Cambrai against Yenice. This union of all the chief powers 
of the Continent had the effect of isolating* England from all 
opportiuiity of taidng part in Continental politics. Nevertheless, 
Henry viii. kept on good terms with Spain, and within a few 
weeks of his accession, he carried out his long-deferred marriage 
with Catharine of Aragon, Ferdinand's daughter, and his brother 
Arthur's widow. For three years the continuance of the League 
of Cambrai made Henry iDowerless to take a line of his own. But 
the clever Venetian statesmen began to play upon the jealousies of 
the ill-assorted coalition arrayed against them, and in 1511 they 
succeeded in breaking up the alliance altogether. Julius 11., the 
fierce and warlike pope, who had taken a prominent part in the 
league, became alarmed lest the destruction of Yenice should be 
followed by the establishment of French rule in Italy. He per- 
suaded Ferdinand and Maximilian to break off their connection 
Th H iv with France, and to join in a new combination with the 
League, Yenetians, whose object was to drive the French out 

1511. of Italy. This league was called the Soly League, 

because the pope was at the head of it. 

5. Henry viii. was delighted that the break-up of the con- 
federates of Cambrai into two factions gave him a chance of taking 
Henry joins ^P ^ -^^ ^^ -^i® own. He joined the Holy League, 
the Holy hoping to win glory for himself by gaining victories 
League. ^^^^ ^j^^ French, and believing that with the help 
of Maximilian and Ferdinand he might again bring Normandy 
and Gascony under the EngKsh king's rule. Wolsey showed won- 
derful energy in raising armies to fight his master's battles, and in 
levying the sums of money necessary to equip and feed them. It 
was the first time that England actively entered into a general 
European war waged on the large scale of modern times. 

6. In 1512 there was fighting all over Europe. The Holy League 
drove the French out of Milan, and Ferdinand of Aragon con- 
The war in qnered the little kingdom of Navarre, which was closely 
1512 and allied to France. Henry sent his cousin, Thomas 

Grrey, marquis of Dorset, with a considerable army to 
the north of Spain, hoping that the Spaniards would co-operate 
with him in his attempt to win back Gascony, the ancient heritage 
of the English kings. But Ferdinand was busy with Navarre, and 
left the English to look after themselves. The raw English troops 
were kept inactive ; and disgust at the weakness of their generals, 
and complaints of the badness of the food and drink supplied to 



-I5I3J 



HENRY VIIl. AND WOLSEY 



321 



tliem, soon drove them into mutiny, Dorset was forced by Ms own 
.soldiers to return to England without accomplisMng anything at 
all. It was a ludicrous result after all Henry's fine talk of foreign 
conquests. 

7. In 1513 Henry and Wolsey made fresh efforts to restore the 
credit of their arms. The king himseK led an army through the 
open gate of Calais into the French king's lands, and gattle of 
the needy emperor, who claimed to be Caesar Augnistus, the Spurs, 
and lord of the world, appeared in the Eng-lish camp, l^^^. 
and greedily took EngHsh pay. Henry defeated the French at 
Gidnegatte with so much ease that the English called their victory 




Emery Walker sc. 
THE FRENCH AND NETHERLANDISH BORDERS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 



the Battle of the Spurs, since the enemy made more use of their 
spurs in their flight than of their swords in the struggle. This 
victory led to the capture of the towns of Therouanne and Tournai. 
"Wolsey, who had served aU through the campaign with but little 
regard to the peaceful character of a prelate, was now made bishop 
of Tournai as the reward of his efforts. 

8. After the ancient fashion, the French sought to weaken the 
English attack by stirring up their old allies the Scots to cross the 
Border. James iv., though Henry viii.'s brother-in- law, eagerly 



322 



HENRY VIII. AND WOLSEY 



[1513- 



abandoned Ms new friendsliip with tke Englisli in favour of the 
traditional policy of the Scottish kings. Ahout the time of the 

Battle of the Spurs he crossed the Tweed at the head 
Fie^TsiS ^^ ^ wen-eqnij)ped and gaUant army, and easily 

captured many of the border castles. The earl of 
Surrey hastened to the north to expel the intruder. On Surrey's 
approach, James took up a strong position on Flodden Edge, one 
of the northern offshoots of the Cheviot hills, a few miles south of 




Emery Walker sc. 

A. First position of the Scottish army. 

B. Second position of the Scottish army. 

C. Position of the two armies at the beginning of the battle. 

1. The Earl of Surrey. a. Borderers. 

2. The English left. b. King of Scots. 

xxxx Their flank charge c. Highlanders, 

during the battle. d. Scottish reserve. 



Coldstream. The deep and broad river Till protected his right 
flank, and a marsh made his left hard to get at. Surrey, who was 
on the oi^posite or east bank of the Till, was Unable to attack with 
advantage, but by a clever march northwards he succeeded in 
crossing the Till at Twizel Bridge, and put liimself between the 
Scots army and Scotland. As Surrey moved northwards, James 



-1514.] HENRY Vin. AND WOLSE\ 323 

foolishly abandoned Flodden Edge and stationed his army on 
Branxton Hill, a lower elevation, at some distance to the north. 
Surrey turned south to meet him, and on his approach, the Scots 
came down from the hill, and on September 9 the decisive battle 
was fought in the plain at its foot. The Scots king blundered to 
the last, and the four divisions into which his army was divided 
were stationed so far apart that they could do little to help each 
other. The struggle soon resolved itself into a fierce hand-to-hand 
fight. Though the borderers on the Scots' left carried all before 
them, the Eng'lish left easily scattered the Higlilanders who fought 
on the Scots' right. In the centre there was a prolonged struggle 
between Surrey and James, but when the English left turned from 
the pursuit of the Highlanders and took James in flank and rear, 
all that the Scots could do was to sell their lives as dearly as 
possible. The northern army was utterly destroyed, and James, 
with the bravest of his nobility, lay dead on the field. The 
victorious Surrey was rewarded by being made duke of Norfolk, a 
title which his father had forfeited by his support of Richard iii. 

9. Flodden Field was the only great exploit in the war. Henry 
was bitterly disappointed with the result of his intervention on the 
continent. He had got no help from liis selfish allies, 

who only looked after their own interests, and he saw France and 
that it was hopeless to expect to win by English Scotland, 
resources alone new victories that could match with 
Crecy and Agincourt. Louis xii., who had been finally driven out 
of Italy, was old and broken in health, and wishful to end his days 
in peace. Julius 11. was dead, and the new pope Leo x. was anxious 
not to risk the results of his victories by continuing the war. 
Moreover, after James iv.'s death, his widow, Margaret Tudor, 
ruled over Scotland in the name of her little son, and won over the 
country to the English side. It thus became easy for Henry to 
make peace with France and Scotland, and hie had little scruple in 
throwing over his father-in-law, Ferdinand, who had helped him so 
badly. The peace with France was cemented by the marriage of 
Henry's younger sister, Mary, to Louis xii. "With his two sisters 
reigning over the French and Scots, Henry came easily out of a 
war that had brought him more expense and worry than glory. 

10. For the next seven years England enjoyed unbroken peace. 
The special feature of this time was the dying off 

of the older generation of rulers, in whose places ppince"."^ 

arose young, vigorous, and able princes, of the same age 

and with the same ambitions as the king of England. Louis xn. 



324 



HENRY Via. AND WOLSEY 



Li5'5- 



died early in 1515, wliereTipoii Lis widow speedily married lier old 
lover, Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, the personal friend and 
boon companion of her brother. Francis I,, Louis' cousia, became 
king of France. He was ambitious and warlike, and at once renewed 
the struggle for Milan, winning in 1515 the great battle of 
Marignano, which restored him to the possession of that duchy, and 
forcing his enemies to make peace on terms that left Milan under 




Dominions of Charles V. (Spanish line). 
Dominions of Ferdinand (German line).. 
Austrian Dominions of Charles given to 
Ferdinand in 1521 



EUROPE 

at the time of Charles V. 

Boundary of the Empire — 



Emery Walker sc. 



French rule. In 1516 Ferdinand of Aragon died, and was suc- 
ceeded by his grandson, Charles of Austria. Charles's mother was 
Joan, elder daughter and heiress of Ferdinand and Isabella, and 
his father, the Archduke Pliilip, was the son and heir of the 
Emperor Maximilian and of Mary of Burgundy, the only daughter 
of Charles the Bold. On Ferdinand's death, Charles, who was 
already lord of the Netherlands, also became king of Spain and 
N"aples and ruler of the great empire which Spanish adventurers 
were winning by the sword in the newly discovered continent of 



-i5«9l 



HENRY VIII. AND WOISEY 



325 



America. In 1519 the Emperor Maxim.iliaii died also, whereup'^n 
Charles succeeded to Austria and the other hereditary dominions of 
the Hapsburgs. 



THE GENEALOGY OF CHARLES Y. AND THE HAPSBURG 
KINGS OF SPAIN 

Charles the Rash, 

duke of Burgimdy, 

d. 1477 

(see table on page 269). 

Maximilian i., ni. Mary of 



Ferdinand, king m. Isabella, queen 



of Aragon 

d. 1516 
(2) 



of Castile, 

d. 1604. 

(1) 



Roman emperor, 
d. 1519. 



Burgundr. 



Catharine of Aragon. 
m. (1) Arthur, prince 
of Wales. 
(2) Henry viii. 



Joan, queen m. Philip, archduke of Austria, 



of Castile 



and Philip i. of Spain, 
d. 1606. 



(2) 

Mary Tudor, 

1663-1658, 

m. Philip II., 

king of Spain. 



Charles v., 1619-1666, 

Roman emperor and 

king of Spain. 

d. 1558. 



Ferdinand i., Roman 

emperor (d. 1564), ancestor 

of the later emperors 

of the house of Austria. 



Philip it. of Spain, 
1666-1598. 



(illegitimate) 
Don John of Austria. 



Philip m. of Spain, 1598-1621. 
Philip iv. of Spain, 1621-1665. 
Charles ir. of Spain, 1666-1700. 

11. The once great title of Roman emperor had now Been borne 
for several generations by the head of the house of Austria. But 
every emperor was chosen by the Seven Electors, and „. , 
some of them were so much afraid of young Charles's Charles V. 
power that they hesitated to appoint him to succeed his and 
grandfather. Francis offered himself as a candidate, 
but after a fierce contest, Charles was preferred. He was henceforth 
called the Emperor Charles v., though the title did little to increase 
his real resources. However, the ancient rivalries of the older 
rulers of France and Spain were at once renewed between these 
two ambitious sovereigns. For the rest of their lives Francis and 
Charles contested fiercely for the first place in Europe. All the 
lesser states of Europe ranged themselves aside with one or the 



326 HENRY VIII, AND WOLSEY [1520- 

other, though the more prudent began to feel that the right 
policy for them was to strive to set up some sort of halance 
between the two g'reat powers. It was mainly through the long 

rivalry of Charles and Francis that the doctrine of the 
of Power Balance of Power was accepted as the basis of all 

European politics. It was thought to be the interest of 
every state to prevent any of its neighbours growing so strong that 
it could upset what was called the European Balance. The notion 
has prevailed more or less ever since, and most of the wars and 
treaties of the last four centuries have been directed to uphold the 
political eoLuilibrium between the different states in Europe. 

12. Wolsey was strongly influenced by the notion of the 
political balance, and persuaded Henry that it was his interest to 
Wolsey's prevent either Francis or Charles having a decided 
fopeign preponderance over the other. "Wolsey also strove to 
policy. maintain peace between the rivals by threatening to 
throw the weight of England on to the side that began hostilities. 
For several years this policy succeeded, thoug-h it led to endless 
hollow and insincere intrigues, and made both parties look upon the 
English with suspicion. Moreover, after the contest for the 
empire, war became inevitable, so that after all Henry had to take 
a side. It speaks well for the way in which the reputation of 
England had revived that both Charles and Francis competed 
eag'erly for her support. 

13. In 1520 Henry and Francis held a personal interview on 
the border between Calais and the French king's territory. Each 
The Field of ^^8' showed such magnificence and splendour that 
the Cloth of men called the place of their meeting the Field of the 
Gold, 1520. Cloth of Gold. Francis and Henry claimed to be like 
brothers in their affection, and wasted huge sums in giving 
elaborate entertainments to each other. There was, however, little 
reality in these solemn declarations, and very soon afterwards Henry 
held a less ostentatious meeting with Charles v. at Gravelines, and 
came to an understanding- with him. Wolsey still professed to 
mediate between the rivals, but Henry had definitely gone over to 
the emperor's side. He still hated the French as England's 
hereditary enemies, and wished well to Charles v., who ruled over 
countries bound to England by many ancient ties of friendship, 
and was himseK the nephew of Queen Catharine. Despite the talk 
about upholding the balance, Henry threw his weight into the scale 
which soon proved to be the heavier one. 

14. Between 1521 and 1529 Charles and Francis were at war.- 



-1529.] HENRY VIII. AND WOLSEY 327 

Henry began as an active ally of Charles, and in 1522 and 1523 
English, armies invaded France from Calais, the second of 
them being commanded by Henry's brother-in-law, ^ .^j^ 
Suffolk, the husband of the widowed queen of France. France, 
But neither expedition inflicted much harm on the 1521-1525. 
French. As during the war of the Holy League, Henry had the 
mortification of seeing liis enemies .defeated by his ally, without 
being able himseK to do anything effective against them. Charles 
drove Francis out of Italy ; and when in 1525 the gaUant chivalry 
of France again crossed the Alps and strove to win back Milan, 
Charles won a complete victory at Pavia and took his rival captive. 
15. The overwhelming defeat of the French made the prospect 
of a fresh English attack on France very hopeful, and for a 
moment there was talk of invading that country. 
However, Wolsey had at last managed to make Henry Jf chart^^^ 
believe in the new theory of the Balance of Power, and the 
He urged that Charles's victory was so complete that Fijench 
he seemed likely to be master of aU Europe, and that 
his preponderance might weU become dangerous to England if he 
were allowed to crush France altogether. Accordingly, Henry 
broke off his friendship with Charles and made peace with France. 
Francis, who was released from prison in 1526, again strove to 
win back his position in Italy. He would have been very glad 
of Henry's direct help, but the English, though professing great 
sympathy for him, left him to do aU his fighting for himself. 
The little princes of Italy, who Kke Henry were much afraid 
of Charles's power, formed a league to help him to drive the 
emperor from the peninsula. Clement vii., the pope, a nephew of 
Leo X., put himself at the head of tliis confederation. But the 
emperor proved irresistible. In 1527 his troops sacked Rome and 
took the pope prisoner. All Europe was horrified, but the severe 
lesson showed the Italians that Charles was their real master. 
Francis struggled on till 1529, when he made the peace of Camhrai 
with Charles on terms that left the emperor supreme in- Italy. 
Henry and Wolsey had done nothing to prevent Charles's ti-iumph. 
With aU their fine talk about holding the balance between the 
rivals, they had not ventured to strike a blow to save France from 
humiliation. Wolsey s diplomacy was as ineffective as Henry's 
armies. It was useless for England to pose as the mediator of 
Europe, when it refused to throw its weight on the weaker side. 
It seemed almost as if the English were conscious that their power 
counted for so little, and believed that even if it had been turned 



328 HENRY VIII. AND WOLSEY [1521- 

against the emperor, it would have been unalble to redress the 
balance. 

16. The old nobles envied Henry and Wolsey even their barren 
triumphs on the continent, and stood aside in sullen isolation, 
Fall of Buck- ^^§"^7 *^^^ low-born men should have the king's chief 
ingham, confidence, while they, whose ancestors had ruled all 
^^^^* England, were quite without real power. The leader 
of the old houses was Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham, son 
of the Buckingham whom Richard ill. put to death. He was a 
proud, vain, foolish man, who was persuaded by false prophets that 
Henry would soon die and that he himself would become king, as 
one of the descendants of Edward ill. He talked rashly about the 
king and the cardinal, and perhaps contemplated a real attack 
upon them. In 1521 he was suddenly arrested and accused of 
treason. The lords condemned him to death without much real 
evidence. But the king said he was guilty, and they were too 
timid or deferential to go against the king's wishes. He was 
beheaded as a traitor, and his fate frightened the proudest of the 
magnates into absolute subservience to the fierce and masterful king. 

17. Henry might safely humiliate the nobles so long as the 
people were on his side. But the cost of his expensive foreign 
The king policy and wasteful court revels had long ago ex- 
and the hausted his father's hoards of treasure, and the English 
Commons. king's ordinary revenue was so smaU that unusual 
expenses could only be met by fresh taxation. The House of 
Commons was loyal to the king, and in 1512 granted him all the 
money he asked for to carry on the French war. But in 1522 and 
in 1523 Henry made such vast demands upon his subjects that 
parliament began to grow restive. The English hated nothing 
so much as taxes, and while willing enough that the king should 
fight the French, showed a strong disinclination to pay the ex- 
penses necessarily involved in such a policy. The parliament of 
1523 made a m.uch smaller grant than the king had asked for, and 
only gave this after Wolsey had gone down to the Commons and 
lectured them on the necessity of supporting the king's government. 
So serious did their attitude seem that for the six years that remained 
of Wolsey's ministry the king* never summoned another parliament. 
In 1525, when he thoug-ht of fitting out another army, he strove 
r^^^Q to raise the money by what was called an Amicable 
Amicable Loan, in which every one was called upon to lend to 
Loan, 1525. ^-j^^ king a sixth part of his income. There was a 
storm of resistance everywhere. It was said that Henry was 



-1525J HENRY VIII. AND WOLSEY 329 

reviving benevolences, wliich h.ad been abolisbed under Eichard iii., 
and th.e only answer Wolsey could give was tkat Richard was a 
usurper and liis laws invalid. A popular rebellion was threatened, 
and Henry was forced to cancel the loan and take what money his 
subjects offered freely. The cardinal was regarded as responsible 
for his master's failure. Already bitterly hated by the nobles, 
Wolsey was henceforth equally disliked by the common people. 

18. New ideas were in the air, and beneath the seeming calm 
of the times the seeds of far-reaching changes were being sown. 
It was the time of the Renascence — that is, of the 

revival or new birth of learning. Men, who in former „^f„^««o 
days had been content to take everything on trust, 
began to ask questions for themselves, and would believe in nothing 
that did not seem to them good and reasonable. The remarkable 
revival of arts and letters which had begun in Italy, gradually 
S})read itself to lands like England, where old-fashioned notions 
had hitherto prevailed. Printing had now made books cheap and 
accessible, and scholars studied not only the schoolmen of the 
Middle Ages, but the classic literature of Greece and Rome. 
Indeed, a zeal for the study of Greek, a language little known 
in the Middle Ages, was a chief characteristic of what was called 
the New Learning. With the revival of antiquity came some 
sort of revival of the spirit of the ancient world, 

19. The institutions and ideas of the Middle Ages had broug-ht 

about much good in their time, but many men had now lost faith in 

them. The Church had been the greatest institution 

of the Middle Ages, but the Church had long been in ?i^^Jf.°*^ . 

1 ^ the Church, 

a state of decay. The papacy had ceased to be m any 

sense the religious centre of Christendom. The popes were still 
rich, powerful, and prominent, but it was as politicians or as 
patrons of the new learning, rather than as spiritual guides to 
the faithful, that they made themselves conspicuous. The chief 
popes of the time were fierce warriors like Julius ii. or clever 
statesmen and lovers of art and literature like Leo x. The corrup- 
tion of the head was but a sign of the decay of the members. 
Gross abuses were common throughout the whole Church, but 
more harm perhaps was done by the wide spread of indifference 
and worldliness. The great ecclesiastics had but little of the true 
spirit of religion. Among the people there was much superstition 
and ungodliness, and but little real faith and earnestness. The 
clergy were largely indifferent or hostile to the movements for 
reform. They thought mainly of preserving their old privileges 



330 HENRY VIIL AND WOLSEY [1509- 

and th.eir own wealtli. They were g-etting' quite out of toucli with 
their flocks. Yet, despite the growth of the new spirit, the 
Church was still outwardly unshaken. It was as rich, as strong-, 
and as proud as ever, and though earnest men denounced its 
corruptions, there were very few who disbelieved in its doctrines 
or wanted to change its system. 

20. The best minds in all countries were striving to make the 
new learning as widely spread as possible, and to get rid of the 

ignorance, superstition, and corruption which stood in 
peformeps*^ the way of all reform. Since the reign of Henry vii., 

a little band of Oxford scholars had been upholding 
the new learning in England. Conspicuous among them was 
John Colet, who, after doing mtich for the revival of the study of 
G-reek in Oxford, was made dean of St. Paul's in London. There 
he exercised immense influence by his preaching and life. Early 
in Henry viii.'s reign he set up a new school, called Bt. Paul's 
school, in which boys were to be brought up in the spirit of the 
new learning. He was a straightforward, high-minded, and deeply 
religious man, who wished to make the clergy more active and 
better educated, but who had no desire to alter the doctrines or 
constitution of the Church. 

21. Among those whom Colet's example deeply influenced were 
the famous foreign man of letters, Erasmus of Rotterdam, who spent 

many years in England, and the brilUant young English 
and^Mop^e lawyer, Sir Thomas More. Erasmus was an enlightened 

but timid scholar, who laughed at bigotry and super- 
stition, and did good service for learning by his writings and by 
his edition of the Greek Testament. But he had little of the 
sturdy directness of spirit of Colet, and his thoughts were always 
for the little world of scholars and thinkers rather than for the 
people at large. More combiued with the delicacy and insight of 
Erasmus some of the vigour and straightforwardness of Colet. It 
was a great disappointment to his student friends when he gave 
up the scholar's life to become a lawyer and a statesman. But his 
knowledge of practical affairs gave him an insight into the roots of 
the, evil that underlay the prosperity of the times, such as no mere 
Mope's scholar could ever possess. In his famous book Utopia, 

"Utopia," written in Latin and pubKshed in 1515, he described 

with great clearness and spirit the evils of the age, 
and by way of contrast drew an imaginary picture of a perfect 
commonwealth, called Utopia, where everything was ordered for 
the best. In this ideal state there was none of the selfishness and 



'I518.] HENRY VIII. AND WOLSEY 33 1 

greed for gain that lie saw in the England around him. Every 
man had enough and none more than enough. Men could think as 
they pleased and worship G-od as they liked. They were interested 
in reading and improving their minds, and were not allowed to 
quarrel with each other, Yery different from this, thought More, 
was the state of affairs in England. There the rich became richer 
and the poor poorer. Men unwilling to work, or for whom no work 
could be found, swarmed over the country as vagrants, thieves, and 
murderers. The hard laws that sent all felons to the gallows were 
useless to remedy this condition of things. The poor had nothing 
to do but to beg and rob, for grasping landowners had found out 
that it paid them better to turn their corn lands into pasture. 
Sheep, More said, were devourers of men, since fewer labourers were 
wanted to watch the great flocks of sheep that now pastured on 
lands which of old had been tilled to produce crops of corn. But the 
Flemish weavers paid a liigher price for wool than the farmers 
could get for corn, and thinking of nothing but their own private 
gain, the landlords were stripping England of its inhabitants and 
the poor of their daily bread. 

22. Henry viii. and Wolsey never seriously grasped the need of 
such reforms as Colet and More described. But they were not 
untouched by the better spirit of the times, and they 
sometimes turned half aside from their schemes of the Church 
selfish statecraft to strive f«ebly to make tilings 
better. More entered into Henry's service, and the king listened 
to his advice and treated Mm with great respect. Wolsey formed 
schemes to reform the Church, and obtained from Leo x., in 1518, a 
special appointment as papal legate, so that he could control the 
whole English Church by virtue of his representing the pope, and 
lord it even over the archbishop of Canterbury. He used his new 
power to dissolve several small and corrupt monasteries, and with 
their revenues he set up a great college at Oxford, which he called 
Cardinal College, and a noble school at Ipswich, his birthplace, to 
supply his Oxford college with well-trained students. It was no 
new thing for g-reat prelates and nobles to endow richly schools and 
colleges. But not even William of Wykeham and Henry vi. had 
designed their foundations on so magnificent a scale as Wolsey. 
However, he was so busy in other work that he never had time to 
carry out his plans properly. What he desired was wise and noble. 
Like Colet and More, he wished to reform the Church from withiu. 
He strove to improve education, to make the clergy work harder 
and avoid gross corruption. But he never set his own life in 



332 HENRY VIII. AND WOLSEY [1517- 

order, nor did he even offer to resign the many bishoprics whose 
revenues enabled him to live like a prince, bnt whose duties 
he never troubled himseK about discharging*. It required more 
unselfishness, more faith, and more hard work than Henry and 
Wolsey were able to give, before the abuses of the Church could 
really be set aright. 

23. On the continent, as in England, attempts were made to 
reform the Church from within. Erasmus, the friend of More and 

Colet,' inspired those who wished to carry out such 
iiing-s ofTlie schemes, but, as in England, there was too much 
Refopma- selfishness and too little earnestness for them to 
i^^9q ^^^^~ prosper. At last a more rough and ready method 

was tried with greater success. In 1517 Martin 
Luther, a friar of Wittenberg, in Saxony, stirred up a great 
agitation against the sale of indulgences. These indulgences 
were remissions of the penance, which those who confessed and 
repented of their sins had imposed upon them by the authority 
of the Church. They were openly sold for money, and the sturdy 
friar became indignant that men should be encouraged to believe 

that a mere cash payment would do away with the 
Martin ^^ results of sin. He taught that men were not 

made righteous by their good works, or formal acts, 
but by their faith in Grod, not by what they did, but by what they 
were. Finding that his teaching was condemned by Leo x., he 
began to denounce the power of the pope and the authority of the 
l)ishops. This was the beginning of the 'Reformation. In a few 
years Luther led all Xorth G-ermany to revolt against the papal 
authority and the system of the Mediaeval Church. His coarseness, 
his violence, his contempt for the past, his revolutionary ideas, 
frightened cautious reformers like Erasmus and More into be- 
coming lovers of the old ways. But the sturdy zeal of the Saxon 
friar accomplished the work that his more timid predecessors had 
failed to carry out, though it was done at the price of breaking 
up the majestic unity of the Mediaeval Church, and with a haste 
and violence that destroyed what was good as well as what was 
merely corrupt and decayed. But if the work had to be done, 
Luther's way was the only practical method of doing it. It was 
in vain that the young Emperor Charles strove to silence the 
audacious heretic, and patch up peace with his captive Clement vii. 
on the basis of an aUiance against the reformers. The spirit of 
Luther spread everywhere. His followers, called after 1529 
Protestants, could not be put down. 



•1525.1 HENRY VIII. AND WOLSEY 333 

24. Side by side with tlie Lutheran reformation, Ulrich Zwingle 
had started a similar movement among the Swiss at the foot of the 
Alps. Ajad a few years later John Calvin, a French- 
man, began to do in France and French-speaking \^p^f . 
countries what Luther and Zwingle had done for the 
Germans. All these leaders of the Reformation broke utterly with 
the old Church, and set up new Churches of their own, based on 
principles which they believed to be more like primitive Christianity 
than the Church of the Middle Ages, As they could not agree 
with each other, the quarrels between the different schools of 
reformers compKcated the strife of the old and the new faiths. 
Co mi ng in the wake of many other far-reaching changes, the 
religious revolution called the Reformation completed the end of 
the Middle Ages, and ushered in the freer, wider life- of modern 
times. But there was so much unrest, disturbance, and bitterness 
caused by the conflict of the old and the new, that men began 
sometimes to sigh for the days before the great changes began. 

25. When Luther first began to denounce the pope and the old 
Church, every one in England was horrified at his boldness. Henry, 
who was proud of his knowledge of theology, wrote a 

book in Latin against the reformer, called the Defence andTuthep 
of the Seven Sacraments, and Leo x. was so pleased with 
it that he gave Henry the style of Defender of the Faith, which 
curiously enough still remains among the titles of our English 
sovereigns. There were few Lollards left to welcome Luther as a 
new Wycliffe. Even the Englishmen who were fond of grumbhng 
about the wealth, privileges, and corruptions of the clergy, had no 
real quarrel with the Church, and Luther's methods had convinced 
reformers like More that the old ways were better than his. Gradu- 
ally, however, some young scholars went over to Germany and became 
ardent followers of Luther. Chief among these was the strenuous 
but bitter William Tyndall, who in 1525 pubKshed an English Noiv 
Testament, that was eagerly circulated among the few English 
innovators, though condemned by the Church, which burned all the 
copies of it that could be found. But Wolsey found no trouble in 
silencing the majority of the English Protestants, and forced many 
to give up their new doctrines. For many years they were of no 
importance whatever. It was not through following in the foot- 
steps of Luther that the English Reformation began, but from the 
self-will and violence of the king himself. 

26. About the time that Henry broke with Charles v., he began 
to grow tired of his wife, the emperor's aunt. Catharine of Aragon 



334 



HENRY VIII. AND WOISEY 



[1525- 



and Anne 
Boleyn. 



was five years tlie senior of her hiislband, and bad liealtli already 
made her an old woman. All the children of the marriage were 
C thap" e <^6^^ except one girl, the Lady Mary. Henry now 
of Apagon persuaded himself that the death of Catharine's other 
children was a proof that God was displeased at his 
breaking the law of the Chnrch by marrying his brother 
Arthur's widow. Most Englishmen wished Henry to have a son, 
who might succeed peacefully to the throne, for there had been no 
instance of a woman ruling England, and it was feared that trouble 
might follow if Henry died without a male heir. But the real 
cause of Henry's scruples was the appearance at court of Anne 
Boleyn, the lively and attractive daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, a 
Norfolk gentleman, who was connected vdth the great house of 
Howard by his marriage with Anne's mother, a daughter of the 
duke of IN^orfolk, who had won the battle of Flodden. With her 
the selfish king fell violently in love, and her charms made him 
eager to divorce Catharine, that he mig-ht make her his wife. 



THE HOWARDS AND BOLEYNS 

John Howard, duke of Norfolk, 
killed at Bosworth, 1485. 



Thomas, earl of Surrey, 
duke of Norfolk, d. 1514. 



Blr Geoffrey 

Boleyn, mayor 

of London. 

Sir W. Boleyn, 



Thomas, duke 

of Norfolk, 

d. 1554. 



Henry, earl 

of Surrey, 

beheaded 1547. 



Sir Edivard 
Howard. 



William, lord Elizabeth, m. Sir Thomas 



Hoivard of 
Effingham. 



Catharine Howard, 
m. Henry viii. 



Charles, lord 

Howard of 

of Effingham 

(Admiral in 1688). 



Thomas, duke of Norfolk, 
beheaded 1572. 



Boleyn, 
afterwards 

earl of 
Wiltshire. 



Anne Boleyn, 
m. Henry viii. 



Queen Elizabeth. 



Philip, ancestor 
of later dukes. 



Lord Thomas Howard, 
Admiral in the Azores, 1591. 

Names in italics not mentioned in text. 



27. In the Middle Ages a marriage sanctioned by the Church 
could not be dissolved. "What was called a divorce meant declaring 
that a marriage had never been a valid one from the beginning. 
But the law of marriage was so complicated, and the . Church 
courts were so corrupt, that it was not as a rule hard for a great 



-1528.] HENRY VIII. AND WOLSEY 335 

prince like Henry to find excuses for such, an annulling of wkat* 
seemed a lawful wedlock. Haviiig- resolved to get rid of Ms 
wife, Henry applied in 1527 to Clement Tii. for a declaration tliat 
his marriage was invalid. It was a particularly awk- ^^^^ origin 
ward time to raise this question. Catharine was the of the 
emperor's aunt, and Charles v. had recently sacked divorce 
Rome and had taken the x>oi)e prisoner. He was 
therefore Clement's master, and was not likely to allow kirn, to 
gratify the king of England, whose desertion of the imperial cause 
Charles had not yet forgiven. Moreover, in raising the question 
of a divorce at all, Henry seemed to be following Luther's example 
of questioning the power of the pope. The ordinary law of the 
Church declared the marriage unlawful. Nevertheless, Julius ii, 
had issued a disjpensation, wliich made an excej)tion from that law 
in Henry's favour. In asking Clement to disregard that, Henry 
practically raised the question of whether Julius had power to 
dispense with the law of the Church in his favour. It is true 
that Henry tried to avoid that issue by suggesting that there 
were certain irregularities of form in Julius's dispensation which 
made it possible for that particular document to be put aside without 
the general question of right being discussed. But plain men were 
sure to concern themselves with, this problem, so that Clement was 
not only prevented from falling in witk Henry's wish by fear of 
the emperor, but also by respect for the power of the office which he 
held. Neither party thought much of the wrongs of Catharine. 

28. Clement vii. thought that the best way out of his difficulties 
was to delay everything as long as he could. He was afraid to 
grant a divorce, but he did not want to quarrel with jj^g Decretal 
Henry, as he hoped that some day Henry and tke king Commission, 
of France would release him from his dex3endence on ^^28, 

the emperor. As a middle course, he agreed to appoint what was 
called a Decretal Comm,issio7i, that is, he empowered a special court 
to find out whether the form of Julius's dispensation was, as Henry 
said, an irregular one, it being- laid down that, if such were the case, 
the marriage was invalid. The court was to consist of two papal 
legates, who were to sit in England. One of them was Wolsey 
himself, and the other was Cardinal Campeggio, an Italian living at 
Rome, who had done so much service to Henry that he was allowed, 
after the evil fashion of the time, to hold the bishopric of Salisbury, 

29. It seemed a great triumph for Henry that the decision of 
his suit should be handed over- to two of his dependents. But 
CaHipeggio was faithful to Clement, and took care to delay 



33^ HENRY Vni. AND WOLSEY [1529- 

'proceedings as much as he could. He wasted a very long time in 
travelling to England, and it was not until the summer of 1529 that 
the legatine court was opened in London. But it then 
1529^ seemed as if everything was nearly over. Catharine de- 

clared before the legates that she regarded herself as 
Henry's lawful wife, and refused to hide herself away in a convent, 
as had been suggested to her. She appealed to the pope in person, 
and the best of Englishmen sympathized strongly with her wrongs. 
30. Clement grew anxious after he had appointed the commis- 
sion that took the matter out of his own hands ; and the emperor 
The fall of ^^^ alarmed lest the legates should give a decision in 
Wolsey, Henry's favour. Before very long the pope annulled 

1 529. j^^ commission, and ordered the whole business to be 

gone over again at Rome. Henry was moved to violent anger, and 
made Wolsey the scapegoat of his failure. The cardinal's favour 
had long been declining. He had done his best to get Henry his 
divorce, but his desire had been that the king should marry a 
French princess, who would bind him more closely to the policy of 
Francis, and he did not like the notion of Henry wedding the giddy 
Anne Boleyn, who would bring him no strong continental alliance. 
But Henry's seK-wUl had triumphed over his minister's opposition, 
though the king now trusted him so little that he kept him in the 
dark as to much that was going on. He knew that Wolsey was 
hated by nobles and people alike, and was glad to get a fresh 
spell of popularity by throwing him over as he had thrown over 
Empson and Dudley. The new duke of Norfolk, Anne's uncle, 
hated the cardinal, and Anne herself believed Wolsey was to blame 
for the failure of the legatine court. All combined to attack 
the unpopular minister. Wolsey was driven from the chancellor- 
ship, and his property seized. His great foundations fell into 
Henry's hands, and the king made it a merit to refound the Oxford 
College on a smaller scale under the name of Christ Church. 
Wolsey abjectly yielded to his enemies, and was finally allowed to 
retire to the north, where he threw himself with strange energy 
into the hitherto neglected duties of his archbishopric. But he 
soon began to intrig'ue for his return to power, whereupon he was 
arrested and brought back to London, to answer the charge of 
treason that Henry always brought against a fallen minister. But 
his health, long weak, broke down under the hardships of a winter 
journey, and he died at Leicester Abbey in l^ovember, 1530, lament- 
ing the instability of the favour of princes. With his fall ends 
the first part of his master's reign. ' 



CHAPTER III 

HENRY VIII. AND THE BEGINNING OF 
THE REFORMATION (1529-1547) 

Chief Dates : 

1529. Meeting of the Reformation Parliament. 
IS33« Act of Appeals. 
^534' -'^ct of Supremacy. 
IS35« Execution of Fisher and More. 

1536. Dissolution of the lesser monasteries ; union of England and 
Wales. 

1539. Dissolution of the greater monasteries and Six Articles Statute. 

1540. Execution of Cromwell. 
1542. Battle of Solway Moss. 
1544. Capture of Boulogne. 
1547. Death of Henry viii. 

1. Ix tlie years that followed the disgrace of Wolsey, Henry yiii. 
still made it his main business to get a divorce from Catharine of 
Aragon. Wolsey's failure had shown that there was progress of 
little use in trying to persuade the pope to annul the the divorce 
marriage, and Henry now sought for stronger methods Question, 
of enforcing his will on Clement. He hoped great things from the 
alliance with France, which remained as the chief legacy of the 
fallen cardinal, and imagined that Francis would really give him 
help in winning over the pope to his side. But Francis was only 
playing his own game. It was not his interest to quarrel with 
Rome to please so uncertain an ally as Henry, and he saw that it 
was useless for him to attempt to drive Charles out of Italy, 
though it was only by expelling the emperor from the peninsula 
that Clement could be made a free man. Yet Henry persevered 
for years in this new policy, while he also strove to appeal from 
the pope to learned public opinion, by consulting the universities of 
Europe as to the validity of his marriage. However, the universities 
gave a divided answer, and in most cases said exactly what the 
rulers of the country in which they were situated told them, so 
that Henry got no good from this step. 

337 Z 



338 HENRY VIII. AND THE REFORMATION [1529- 

2. Henry was gradually forced to see tliat if lie obtained Ms 
divorce, lie must mainly rely upon liimseK and Ms own subjects. 
Henpv VIII "^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ most effective metbod of bring-ing pres- 
and his sure on tbe pope was to sbow Mm tbat England was 
subjects. backing up Ms request. It was not bard for Henry to 
force tbe Cburcb and tbe people of England to profess tbemselves 
in agreement witb Mm. Men were still accustomed to look up to 
tbe king and take wbat be said as true. Henry bad plenty of ways 
of dragooning Ms subjects into obedience, and did not scruple to 
use tbem. Convinced tbat be bad a better cbance of obtaining Ms 
own way if be made a sbow of consulting Ms people, Henry made 
a point for tbe rest of Ms reign of getting parliament, and in 
Cburcb matters convocation, on Ms side. But it would be very 
wrong to tbink tbat tMs pretence of consulting* tbe people and tbe 
Cburcb meant anytbing real. . Left to tbemselves, Englisbmen 
would never bave entered upon so bold a policy of cbange as tbat 
wMcb Henry's self-will now induced Mm. to undertake. He wais 
already contemplating tbe witbdrawal of Englisb obedience from 
tbe papacy if Clement still beld out. 

3. Soon after Wolsey's fall, parliament and convocation were 

assembled. Between 1529 and 1536 tbe Same parliament continued 

„, ^ ^ to bold its sessions. Before it separated, it bad enabled 

Tne Reiop- 

mation tbe king to break finally from tbe Cburcb of tbe 

Parliament, Middle Ages. Eear and seH-interest made all men 
seek to do tbe king's will. Tbe cMef danger of 
opposition came from tbe Cburcb, but Henry persuaded parliament 
to pass various laws against ecclesiastical abuses in order to 
frigbten tbe clergy. Tben came a more crusbing blow. Henry 
told tbe clergy tbat tliey bad all broken tbe Statute of Prsemunire 
(see page 223) by acknowledg-ing Wolsey as papal legate. Wbat 
be said was quite true, but tbe statute of Prsemunire bad long been 
neglected, and Henry bimseK bad been as guilty as anybody. 
However, tbe clergy were forced bumbly to confess tbeir error, and 
gladly bougbt tbeir pardon of tbe king by paying Mm an enormous 
„ fine. Even tMs was not enougb. Tbey were also forced 

Supreme to acknowledge tbat Henry was tbe Supreme Head of 
Head of the fj^^ English Church. It was a vague pMase, wMcb 
migbt mean anytMng or notbing. But Henry sbowed 
from tbe beginning tbat be meant to press tbe title to tbe utter- 
most. Before long tbe Royal Supremacy, bencefortb tbe great 
doctrine of tbe Eng'lisb Reformation, was found incompatible witb 
tbe papal supremacy, in wMcb all men bad liitberto firmly believed. 



-IS34-] HENRY VIII. AND THE REFORMATION 339 

4. Having shown himself master of his own clergy, Henry 
began to pass measures through parliament against the pope's 
power, hoping thus to frighten him into granting a 

divorce. But Clement was as unable as ever to do separation 
what the king wanted, and the onlv result of this policy from Rome, 
was that the pope's power in England was gradually 
cut away. The first step towards this was reviving the old laws 
against the pope, such as the statute of Praemunire. New legislation 
soon followed. In 1532 Annates, or First Fruits, that is, the pay- 
ment of the first year's revenue of a new benefice, which the clergy 
had hitherto made to the pope, were transferred to the crown. In 
1533 the Act of Appeals was passed, which forbade Englishmen to 
carry appeals from the Eng'lish Church courts to the court of the 
pope. Clement answered by affirming the lawfulness of Catharine's 
marriage ; and dying soon after, his successor, Paul iii., threatened 
Henry with excommunication. Henry replied to these menaces by 
fresh laws against the pai)acy. In 1534 the separation from Rome 
was completed by the Act of Supy-emacy, which made it treason to 
deny that Henry was supreme head of the English Church. 

5. The archbishopric of Canterbury falling vacant, Henry 
appointed to that great office a Cambridge scholar named Thomas- 
Cranmer. Cranmer was a pious, learned, and well- cranmep 
meaning man, but he waS weak and undecided, and and the 
soon proved himself a mere creature for carrying out **ivopee. 
the strong king's will. Despairing of getting a divorce from 
Home, Henry now secretly married Anne Boleyn. He forced con- 
vocation to declare Catharine's marriag'e void ; and the new arch- 
bishop held a court at Dunstable, in which he also solemnly declared 
the foi'mer marriage to be against {Grod's law. As the Act of 
Appeals cut off the Roman jurisdiction, the archbishop's court was 
now the highest Chui-ch court for England. There was no longer 
any way of taking Catharine's case any further, and thus the great 
divorce suit was terminated after six years of delay. But the price 
Henry had paid was the breaking of the tie which had so long bound 
the EngHsh Church to the Churches of Christendom. Nominally, 
the breach with Rome left the English Church independent. 
Practically, it became absolutely subject to the fierce wiU of the 
king. The separation from Rome brought the Tudor despotism to 
its highest point. 

6. England was now as completely separated from Rome as 
were the Protestant churches of Germany. But Henry still 
looked with horror on Protestantism, and professed to make no 



340 HENRY VIII. AND- THE REFORMATION [1534" 

changes ia the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the English 
Church. He was proud of his middle way hetween the two ex- 
Henrv VIII tremes. He strove to prove his love for the old faith 
and Pro- by seeking out and burning to death all the English 
testantism. Protestants on whom he could lay his hands. But -^hat- 
ever the king might profess, the abolition of the papal supremacy 
was a real revolution. It was not simply a political change, as 
Henry maintained. It was a religious change as well, when the 
English nation repudiated the authority to which it had looked up 
ever since it had become a Christian people. Other changes were 
sure to follow, and however much Henry might hate Luther, 
common enmity to Rome was bound sooner or later to bring all 
reformers together. 

7. The great majority of EngKshmen passively accepted the 
king's policy ; but there were murmurs against it from the begin- 
The resist- iiiJig from a few high-minded and clear-sighted men, 
anee to the who realized more fully than most the true meaning of 
suppemaey. ^j^^ ^i^^. John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, an aged 
prelate of great learning and piety, protested from the beginning 
against the king's action. Sir Thomas More, who had become 
chancellor after Wolsey's fall, gave up his office and retired into 
private life rather than acknowledge the royal supremacy. They 
were not allowed to remain long undisturbed. Before the end of 
1533 a daughter, named Elizabeth, was born to Henry and Anne. 
As Catharine's child Mary was cut off from the succession when 
the marriage of her mother with Henry had been declared invalid, 
it was thought necessary to pass in 1534 an Act of Succession, 
settling the crown on the little Lady Elizabeth and any other 
children there might be of the marriage of Henry and Anne» 
Moreover, a new Treasons Act was hurried through parliament, 
which made it treason to deny to the king any of his royal titles. 
It was not easy for those who gainsaid the king's policy to escape 
the consequences of these laws. 

8. More and Fisher were called before Archbishop Cranmer 
and asked to take the oath of succession, drawn up under the recent 
Mope and ^^^' They said that they would willingly accept Anne 
Fishep oppose Boleyn's children as future rulers of England, since an 
Henpy. ^^^ q£ parliament was competent to alter the succession 
to the throne. But more than this was demanded of them. They 
were required to declare Anne Boleyn Henry's lawful wife, and to 
renounce the authority of the pope. These two things they declared 
thf:jr could not do with a good conscience. 



-I535-] HENRY VIII. AND THE REFORMATION 34I 

9. Other men of less position followed or anticipated their 
example. Conspicuous among these latter were many of the monks 
of the London Charterhouse, one of the best ordered 

of all the English monasteries. Among other oppo- y^q^^q 
nents of the supremacy was Reginald Pole, a young monks and 
churchman, then studying in Italy, who, as the grand- R^pinald 
son of George, duke of Clarence, brother of Edward iv., 
stood near to the throne (see table on pag-e 294). Pole gave up 
his prospects of high preferment in England rather than renounce 
his faith. Appointed cardinal in 1536, he remained in exile, 
constantly protesting ag'ainst Henry's doings. 

10. Henry shut up in prison all opponents of the supremacy 
within his reach, and had no difficulty in procuring their con- 
demnation as traitors. In 1535 the victims of his „ ^ , 

More and 
policy suffered on the scaffold. The obscure monks of Fisher 

the Charterhouse were among the first to die. Fisher's executed, 
fate was soon settled by the rash kindness of the new 
pope, Paul III., who made him a cardinal. After this, Henry at 
once ordered him to be put to death. A few days later Sir 
Thomas More was also executed. The sacrifice of men so famous 
brought home to every one the relentless policy of Henry. The 
king had trampled on all opposition, and was more master of Eng- 
land than ever. 

11. Henry now resolved to work out to the uttermost the 
doctrine of the royal supremacy. He created a new minister, called 
the king's vicar-general in Tnatters ecclesiastical, and Cpomwell 
appointed to it one of Wolsey's former servants. This vicar- 
was Thomas Cromwell, the son of a fuller at Putney. ^^^^^^ • 

In early life Cromwell had been driven from England for his bad 
conduct, and had wandered about Italy and the Netherlands, at one 
time serving as a soldier, but finally taking to trade, and thriving 
so well in it, that he came back home a wealthy and prosperous 
man. Wolsey took him into his service, and he was employed in 
soippressing the monasteries, from whose funds the cardinal hoped 
to endow his colleges at Oxford and Ipswich. After Wolsey's fall, 
Cromwell behaved with such discretion that he was regarded by the 
cardinal's friends as showing remarkable fidelity to his disgraced 
master, while he was at the same time craftily winning the king's 
favour, Yery soon Henry took him into his service, and at once 
found in him just the man that he wanted. Cromwell was a strong, 
able, and far-seeing man, who had neither doubts or scruples, but 
devoted all his cunning and resource to carrying out the caprices 



342 



HENRY VIII. AND THE REFORMATION. [1535- 



of the despot. He was just the clever tool who could strike the 
bold strokes that Henry was now meditating. Between 1535 and 
1539 he carried out such a revolutionary change, that the abolition 
of the papal power seemed but a small matter beside it. 




Emery Walker sg 



12. The monasteries had long fallen into evil days. In the 
early Middle Ages they had done a great work in spreading religion 

and civilization (see pages 55, 154, and 243), but they 
State of the ^^^ ^^^ fallen out of touch with the times. It had 

long been a rare thing to set up new religious houses. 



-1536.] HENRY VIII, AND THE REFORMATION 343 

All through, the fifteenth century there had been plenty of Kheral 
foundations, but the new establishments were colleges, schools, and 
houses of " secular " priests. Sometimes, as Wolsey's case showed, 
it was thoug"ht a wise thing to abolish monasteries in order to 
procure the money to build such new colleges. The old fervour of 
devotion that had ennobled the ancient abbeys had become so rare 
a thing, that the heroic self-sacrifice which had led the monks of the 
London Charterhouse to become willing' martyrs for their faith, 
stood in marked contrast to the timidity and selfishness of the 
majority of the monasteries. The greater houses were often the 
abodes of formalism and dull respectability. In some houses there 
was gross corruption ; and this seems especially to have been the case 
in the smaller houses, which often were so poor that they could neither 
pay their way nor live according to their rule. Most men looked 
upon the monks with indifference. Few were anxious to enter the 
monastic life. Though the orders were too timid to oppose actively 
the royal supremacy, they were the least national part of the Church, 
being bound closely to their foreign brethren, and being at all times 
good friends of the papacy. Thus their principles excited suspicion, 
while their helplessness made them easy victims, and their wealth 
excited the greed of the rapacious king and his minister. 

13. In 1535 Cromwell sent royal commissioners tlu'oughout the 
country to inquire into the state of the monasteries. The com- 
missioners worked actively and unscrupulously to get 

up a case against the monks, and reported to their . ^^^he^^" 
master that corruption and immorality were very wide- smaller 
spread among them. In 1536 parliament was induced monastepies, 
by their evidence to pass an Act aboKshing all 
monasteries that had a revenue of less than £200 a year. Their 
goods were seized by the king ; and the ordinary Englishman found 
out for the first time that the old religion of the country was being 
undermined, when hundreds of ancient houses of religion were 
ruthlessly broken up, their inmates scattered, their churches pro- 
faned, and their lands squandered among greedy courtiers. 

14. The north of England was the part of the country least 
affected by the new ways. There the monks were still doing 
good service, and were still beloved and popular. The ,^^^ 
sturdy north- country men broke into open revolt, to Piigpimage 
show their detestation of the poHcv that led to the sup- of Grace, 
pression of the smaller monasteries. The first riots were 

in Lincolnshire, but the most formidable was in Yorkshire, where a 
great body of rebels gathered together at Doncaster under Robert 



344 HENRY VIII. AND THE REFORMATION [1536- 

Aske. The revolt was called the Filgrimage of Grace, because the 
rebels resolved to march to London on pilgrimage to the king, 
hoping to persuade him to set back the Church in its old glory, 
to drive away upstarts like Cromwell from his councils, and 
to put the old nobles back in their natural places as his advisers. 
The duke of Norfolk, sent by the king to put down the revolt, 
persuaded the pilgrims to g*o home peaceably, and announced that 
the king would redress their grievances. This broke the back 
of the rebellion, but next year Henry made new riots a pretext for 
violating his promise, and for hunting down and putting to death 
the leaders of the rising. To prevent such revolts in the future, he 
set up at York a new court, called the Council of the North, which 
soon made the wild regions beyond the Humber as peaceable and as 
dependent on his will as the richer and tamer south country. 

15. The monasteries spared in 1536 soon met their fate. Crom- 
well's commissioners strove hard to persuade the different abbeys 

to surrender their property to the king ; when bribes 
sion of the ^^ entreaties were of no use, threats and violence 
greater were unscrupulously employed. Some of the houses 

1536-f539^^' ^^^^ ^^* heroically, but Henry found it easy to trump 

up some charge against their inmates. For example, 
he accused the abbot of Grlastonbury of stealing the plate of the 
abbey, and hanged him on a high hill overlooking the whole 
countryside, as a warning of the fate of those who resisted the king. 
In three years nearly every abbey had submitted to the royal will, 
and in 1539 a new act was passed which finally gave the king aU 
the abbey lands. There was much talk of employing the vast sums 
thus confiscated to the king for public purposes, such as for 
founding new bishoprics, reorganizing the navy, and defending 
our coasts against invasion. But about half of the abbey estates 
were squandered by the king on his friends and courtiers, or sold 
to speculators at low prices. Thus the fall of the monasteries had 
a great effect on the lives of the people. They not only lost their 
old houses of prayer, and were shocked by the king's carelessness 
of their most sacred beliefs ; they saw their easy-going old land- 
lords replaced by new men who, having paid for their lands, strove 
to get as high a rent as they could; and knowing and caring 
nothing' for their tenants, took little interest in their weKare. 
The doles which the monks had scattered among the poor ceased, 
as did the kindly spirit they had often shown to their dependents. 
But the king gained what the people lost. The spoils of the 
monasteries enabled his courtiers to become the founders of a new 



-I539-] HENRY VIII. AND THE REFORMATION 345 

nobility devoted to tlie king, from whom their prosperity came, 
and eager to help him in his schemes. The House of Lords 
became, by the fall of the mitred abbots, an assembly with a strong 
lay majority, and more dei)endent on the king's will and less repre- 
sentative of the Church. A mere trifle was kept for the Church, 
out of which six new bishoprics were set uj) at Chester, Gloucester, 
Bristol, Peterborough, Westminster, and Oxford (see map on page 
342). A few abbey churches were kept as the cathedrals of these 
new sees or to replace the chapters of the old sees that had hitherto 
been served by monks. A larger proportion of the spoil was spent 
on other public purposes, and in particular in building ships of 
war, erecting fortifications on the coast, and casting strong cannon 
to equip them. 

16. Other religious changes attended the suppression of the 
greater monasteries : images and relics were destroyed, the shrines 
of English saints broken up, and some of the old _,, _ ... 
Church holidays were abolished. Cranmer and Crom- Bible and 
well began to look upon the German Protestants as the growth 
their allies, and persuaded the king to give bishoprics ° f^,- °^I"^"^ 
to lovers of new ways. The best of these Hugh Lati- 
mer, who was made bishop of Worcester, had been the frier d 
of some of the Protestant martyrs burned a few years earlier. 
It was another great change when Henry allowed English 
Bibles to be printed and circulated, and before long ordered that 
every parish church should possess a copy of an edition called the 
G-reat Bible which was issued by Cranmer himseK. These versions 
all showed the influence of Tyndall's earlier work. Yet at the 
same time that Henry allowed them to circulate, he encouraged 
Charles t. to seek out Tyndall in the Netherlands and execute him 
for heresy. Though the king was drifting towards Protestantism, 
Protestants were still hunted down and punished. While they were 
burned to death as heretics, the king still laid violent hands 
on all friends of the pope who denied the Royal Supremacy, and 
rutlilessly butchered them as traitors. 

17. The king's rule was becoming a bloody tyranny. Nothing 
stood in the way of his reckless will and his fierce desires. He 
soon grew tired of the giddy and foolish Anne Boleyn. j^ie king- 
He was disappointed that no son had been born to and his 
them, and was irritated by her unseemly dealings with wives. 

the courtiers. Moreover, he fell in love with a pretty lady about 
the court named Jane Seymour, and Anne now stood across his 
l)ath much as the unhappy Catharine of Aragon had once been in 



346 HENRY VIII. AND THE REFORMATION [1536- 

the way of Anne herself. In 1536 Anne was accused of adultery^ 
tried before a court presided over by lier own uncle, and, though 
protesting her innocence, hurried to the scaffold. The very next 
day Henry married Jane Seymour. In 1537 Queen Jane gave 
him the long-hoped-for male heir, but she herself died soon after. 
Queen Catharine had died before Queen Anne, so that the little 
Edward, prince of "Wales, was the undoubted heir of his father. 
The Lady Elizabeth, Queen Anne's daughter, was now pushed 
aside like the Lady Mary. Before her mother's death, Cranmer 
had pronounced the marriage invalid, so that Elizabeth and Mary 
alike were regarded as illegitimate. Queen Jane's brothers, the 
Seymours, remaiued high in Henry's favour, and generally sup- 
ported CromweU. and Cranmer in their forward reKgious policy. 

18. Thfe reckless changes brought about in religion excited 
wide and increasing discontent. None now ventured on open 
Con- rebellion, for even signs of disagreement with the 
spipaeies, king's policy invariably led to condemnation as a 

538-1549. traitor. In 1538 Henry Courtenay, marquis of Exeter, 
a grandson of Edward iv. and the king's first cousin (see table on 
page 284), was executed on a charge of conspiracy which was in 
lio way legally proved. At the same time, the brother and some 
of the kinsfolk of Cardinal Pole suffered a like fate. In 1541, 
Pole's mother, Margaret, countess of Salisbury, also perished on 
the scaffold. There was no evidence that the aged lady had com- 
mitted treason. But it was enough that she was a daughter of the 
duke of Clarence and the mother of Cardinal Pole, who had long 
been doing his best to excite the Continent against Henry. 

19. The Tudor despotism was now at its heig'ht. The parlia- 
ment of 1539, which abolished the greater monasteries, passed a 
The Six statute that gave the king's proclamations the force 
Articles, of law, and thus practically surrendered to Henry the 
1539. parliamentary right of making new laws. But Henry, 
with all his self-will, was quick to perceive the signs of the times, 
and perhaps he had now grown tired of change, or was fearful of 
the consequences of further innovations. He induced the same 
parliament to pass the ^ix Articles Statute, wliich showed very 
clearly that England had still no sympathy with the doctrines of 
the G-erman Protestants. This law affirmed strongly the chief 
doctrines of the Mediaeval Church. By its first clause, all who 
disbelieved in the doctrine of Transuhstantiation, or the change of 
the bread- and wine of the Eucharist into the substance of Christ's 
natural Body and Blood, were liable to be burned as heretics. In 



-I540.J HENRY VIII. AND THE REFORMATION 347 

the otter articles, tlie celibacy of the ckrgy, the need of auricular 
(or private) confession to the priest, and the sufficiency for the 
laity of receiving- the bread without the wine in the Holy Com- 
munion, were strongly affirmed. The Protestants, who had hoped 
for everything, gave way to despair when Henry had knotted this 
"whip with six strings," as they called it. The prisons were 
filled with them. Latimer gave up his bishopric ; Cranmer, who 
had secretly married, sent his wife home to Germany. The 
reforming period of the reign was at an end. 

20. Cromwell saw that his influence was on the wane, and 
made a desperate effort to win back the favour of his master. 
Henry had had little to do with foreig'n politics for 

many years. Charles and Francis alike stood aloof cieves and 
from him, and more than once talked of ending their the fall of 
jealousies by joining together to bring back England 154^^^ ' 
to the old faith. Henry had therefore reason to fear 
invasion, and had little hope of support from his old allies. Crom- 
well proposed that he should set off against the angar of Charles 
the friendship of the North German princes, who were mostly 
Protestants and all jealous of the emperor. Since Jane Seymour's 
death, Henry had remained a widower. Cromwell now proposed 
that he should marry Anne, sister of the duke of Cieves, a mig'hty 
prince on the Lower Rhine , who, though not a professed Lutheran, 
was inclined to favour the Protestants. This marriage, Cromwell 
believed, would bind Henry closely to the German princes, and 
give him powerful helpers against the emperor. The king rose 
eagerly to the proposal, and the marriage was agrreed upon. But 
when Anne of Cieves came to England, the king found her dull, 
plain, and ignorant of any language that he knew. He accord- 
ingly turned against her from the first, and easily persuaded 
Cranmer to declare the marriage void on some frivolous pretext. 
At the same time, the North German princes would have nothing 
to say to his proposals of an alliancet The wrath of Henry, mad- 
dened by this double failure, fell on Cromwell with more crushing 
force than ever on Wolsey. Norfolk, as before, eagerly took 
advantage of the chance of ruining the upstart. Cromwell was 
arrested on a charge of treason and heresy. Parliament passed, 
without a murmur, an act of attainder. In 1540 the last strong 
minister of the reign lost his head on Tower Hill. On the very 
day of Cromwell's execution, Henry married for the fifth- time. 
His new wife was Catharine Howard, Norfolk's niece. 

21. The fall of Cromwell stopped almost entirely the progress 



348 HENRY VI IL AND THE REFORMATION [1540- 

of tlie Reformation. Historians have called the years between 1 540 
and 1547 the reactionary period of Henry's reign, becanse the 

king, tired of the colossal changes which Cromwell 
tionapy ^^^ Cranmer had brought about, went back to his 

period, former love of ancient ways, and broke decisively with 

the new opinions toward which he had long been 
drifting. !N'orf oik, the queen's uncle, was now the chief lay noble 
in the king's council. Along with Stephen G-ardiner, bishop of 
Winchester, and Edmund Bonner, bishop of London, !N'orf oik headed 
the men of the old learning, who, though accepting the royal 
supremacy and the abolition of the monasteries, steadily set their 
faces against all further change. The men of the new learning, best 
represented by the timid Cranmer and by the king's brothers-in 
law, the Seymours, were allowed to remain in the council, but were 
watched and suspected and excluded from all real power. One of 
the signs of the times was the passing of a curious law, forbidding 
any but gentlemen to read the Bible in English. Another was the 
increased number of Protestants who were burned at the stake as 
heretics. 

22. Foreign policy, like ecclesiastical policy, went back on its 
old lines. Scotland had long given Henry a great deal of trouble. 
War with ^^^ sister Margaret, who ruled for a time after 
Seocland. Flodden, soon fell from power, and her son, James v., as 
1542-1545. -j^Q grew up to manhood, was gradually brought round 
to the French alliance that was ever popular beyond the Border. 
James also became as great a friend of the pope as he was of King 
Francis, a.nd in both capacities gave his uncle much trouble. But 
James, though a brilliant and popular king, lost the love of his 
own nobles, who refused to fight for him. Accordingly, in 1542, 
the English gained an easy victory at Solway Moss. James, who 
was already broken in health, died soon after the battle, leaving the 
throne to his baby daughter Mary, henceforth known as Mary 
Queen of Scots. But the weak government of an infant queen 
gave Henry his opportunity. His brother-in-law, Edward Seymour, 
earl of Hertford, won a cheap reputation as a soldier by plundering 
and devastatrag the Lowlands, Henry professed now to wish for 
peace, and proposed to marry his son Edward to the little queen. 
But he took a strange way of winning his object, and Hertford's 
cruelties made the Scots look to France more than ever. 

23. Henry was soon involved in war with France as well as 
Scotland. This led him to patch up his old quarrel with Charles v., 
and, in 1544, Henry and Charles agreed upon a joint invasion of 



-I545-] HENRY VIII. AND THE REFORMATION 349 

France. But Cliarles threw Henry over, and made a separate 
peace, leaving Henry to fig-lit single-handed against both the 
French and the Scots. In the course of the struggle war with 
Henry captured Boulogne. Tliis so annoyed the France, 
French that they prepared a great fleet and army to 1544. 
Invade England. However, this proved a failure, and after fruit- 
less attempts to effect a landing for their army, the French were 
forced to retreat to their own harbours. Before the end of the 
reign, they were glad to make a peace which left Boulogne to Henry. 

24. The foreign war exhausted Henry's treasury. He had long 
ago squandered the lands of the monks, and was now so poor that 
he tried to set his finances straight by mixing copper „, 
with the silver which was coined into money at the wave of 
royal mint. But this debasing of the coinage did him peformation, 
little good, as every one began to demand higher prices 
for their goods, now that the shilling contained less than half 
silver and the rest base metal. In his need for money, Henry 
again turned greedy eyes on ecclesiastical property, and strove to 
make his policy of robbery more respectable by professing once 
more a great desire to purify and reform the Church. In 1545 
parliament gave him power to dissolve the chantries, foundations 
where priests offered masses for the repose of the souls of the dead, 
and those colleges, or corporations of clergy, which, not being 
monasteries, had escaped the clutches of Cromwell. 

. 25. Norfolk and his friends now steadily lost influence. In 
1542 Norfolk's niece, Queen Catharine, was executed, like her 
cousin Axme, on a charge of adultery, that was proved 
more clearly than most of the crimes which Henry Howard"^ 
attributed to those who stood in his way. Henry now and 
married his sixth and last wife, Catharine Parr, a Catharine 
bright young widow, who stood aside from politics, 
and showed such prudence that she managed to outlive her husband. 
Her brother was strongly on the reforming side, and joined with 
the Seymours and Cranmer in fresh efforts to oust the Howards 
and their friends from power. 

26. Henry's health was now breaking up, and it was clear that 
he would not live ni^uch longer. The two parties into which the 
council was divided contended fiercely for supremacy, _, „ .. 
and the suspicious old tyrant inclined more and more of the 

to the reformers. The imprudence of the Howards Howards, 

. 1 547 

hastened on their downfall. Norfolk himself was bad- 
tempered, haughty, and incompetent. His eldest son, the earl of 



350 HENRY VIII. AND THE REFORMATION [1509- 

Siirrey, was a gallant young nobleman of great accomplislunents, 
and famous as a versifier and tlie reformer of English poetry. 
But lie was as overbearing as Ms father, and rashly provoked the 
old king's anger by assuming arms that had once belonged to the 
crown. He was accused of aiming at the throne, thrown into 
prison, condemned as a traitor, and beheaded early in 1547. His 
father was included in the same accusation, and was also sentenced 
to death. He was only saved by Henry's dying before the time 
fixed for his execution. 

27. The reign of Henry viii. saw important chang-es in the 
relations of England with the other parts of the British Islands. 

Like Edward i., Henry wished to be lord of the whole 
Henry ylll. ^£ Britain and Ireland. His greediness and im- 
andlreland. j. ^ i • -; i • r^- ±. n 

patience prevented him irom doing* anything to end 

the hostiKty between England and Scotland. But both in Ireland 
and Wales he was able to accomplish something considerable 
towards effecting his purpose. W/ien he came to the throne, he 
found Ireland was practically independent and ruled by the Norman 
feudal lords of the centre and south, and by die native clan 
chieftains of the wilder north and west. The Fitzg-eralds, earls 
of Kildare, were the most powerful of the l^orman families, and 
it was only by making them viceroys that Henry was able to keep 
even a semblance of authority in the Eng-lish pale. But at last the 
Fitzgeralds grew too insolent for the king to be able to endure 
them. In 1535 they rose in revolt, and Henry managevi to break 
down their power. In the years that followed, he bribed the Irish 
lords by English titles and by dividing among them the lands of 
the Irish monasteries. This led them to accept, at least in name, 
the extension to Ireland of the doctrine of the Hoyal Supremacy. 
In recognition of his increased authority, Henry g'ave up the 
simple title of Lord of Ireland, borne by all kings since Henry ir. 
Instead of this he called himseK King of Ireland, a name that 
indicated a more direct and complete sway. But his policy only 
started that new conquest of Ireland which lus great daughter 
completed. 

28. Henry's efforts had more complete success in Wales. He 

set up a Council of Wales at Ludlow, which secured g-ood peace in 

,^ . - the Principality and in the March alike. There was 

Union or ^ ^ , ^ jt • , n -,-,■,.,. ,. 

Eni^land '^0 longer any need to keep up this twofold distinction, 

and Wales, since the king had now become direct ruler of most of 

4 cog ^ 

the Marcher lordships tlirough the dying out of the 
old feudal houses that once bore sway over them. A king, sprung 



-1547-] HENRY VIII. AND THE REFORMATION 351 

from "Welsh, ancestors, saw it was both a good and a popular thing- 
to put an end to the humiKating dependence of Wales on England, 
that had lasted since the conquest of Edward i. Accordingly, in 
1536, Henry divided all Wales into thirteen counties and incor- 
porated the whole with England. The Welsh shires now sent 
members to the English parliament, and had the same system of 
laws as England. The county palatine of Chester was also in- 
cluded in this legislation, and for the first time now became 
••epresented at Westminster. 



CHAPTER IV 
EDWARD VI. (1547-1553) 

Chief Dates : 

1547. Accession of Edward vi. ; Battle of Pinkie. 

1549. The first Prayer-book ; and the Devonshire and Norfolk revolts. 

1552, Second Prayer-book ; Execution of Somerset. 

1553. Death of Edward vi. 

1. Henry viii.'s only son, wlio now became Edward vi., was a 
sickly Iboy of ten, and mncL. too yonng- to rule on Ms own behalf. 
The old king", foreseeing a long minority, bad drawn 
becomes ^V ^ scheme for a carefully balanced council of 

Protector, regency, in wbich tbe old and tbe new learning sboiild 
^^^^* be so equally represented tbat things would not be 

Kkely to be altered until his son became a man and could 
decide for himself. The triumph of the new le. Ining over the old 
learning just before Henry's death had, however, given such a 
strong position to the reformers that they were no longer content 
to bide their time. Anxious for the immediate possession of office, 
the reformers upset aU Henry's plans, and made their leader Hert- 
ford, duke of Somerset and Lord Protector, with almost royal power, 
and with a council on which the reformers had the complete mastery. 
2. As the little king's nearest kinsman, Somerset seemed the 
most natural guardian of his nephew's throne. He had won 
jjjg popularity by reason of his gracious manners, sympathy 

character foi* the poor, and skill as a soldier. Though he did 
and policy, j^ot scruple to enrich himself with Church property, 
he was more kindly and honest than most of the statesmen of his 
day. His chief objects as a ruler were to carry to completion the 
reforming movement that had already begun in the last years 
of Henry viii.'s reign, and to continue as well as he could the old 
king's foreign policy. But Somerset was not strong enough to 
accomplish this double ,task. Weak, obstinate, and unpractical, he 
never realized the necessity of doing one thing at the time. Within 
three years he had failed so utterly that he was driven from power 
in disgrace. 
352 



-I547-] 



EDWARD VI. 



;53 



, 3. Henry viii. had made peace with, the French and Scots 

before his death, and common prudence should have induced 

Somerset to keep on s-ood terms with both countries. „, . 

The in- 
Two circumstances, however, strongly impelled the vasionof 

Protector to take up a strong line as regards Scotland. Scotland, 
One was that the regency, which ruled Scotland in the ^°'*'* 
name of the little queen Mary, had persecuted the Scottish Pro- 
testants with such vigour that they had risen in revolt against the 
government, and, being overpowered, had appealed to England for 




^V-Pinkiel 









\Inveresk ^/ / otiV ^c$; o^'WW'l^ 



Battle of 
PINKIE 

10 Sept. 1547. 

English Miles 



English Army..^ 
Scottish Army.. 



■■.".in] 







Emery Walfcer sc. 



A. First position of English army. 

B. First position of Scottisii army. 
— Forward marcli of the Scots. 

D. Scottish position before the battle. 



English position before the battle. 

1. Grey. 

2. Warwick. 

3. Somerset. 



assistance. The other was that Somerset was anxious to carry out 
Henry viii.'s policy of uniting the two realms by the marriage 
of Edward with the queen of Scots. Somerset was so eager iii 
helping the Scottish Protestants that he did not see that he could 
not combine this course of action with the peaceful negotiations 
with the regency for the marriage of Edward and Mary. Before 
long his want of tact again involved the two countries in a war. 



354 EDWARD VI. [1547- 

wMch. long postponed both, tlie B'cottisli Reformation and the 
reconciliation of tlie two BritisL. kingdoms. In September, 1547, 
Somerset ilivaded the Lothians, and on September 10 fonght 
a battle against the Scots who had assembled an army to defend 
Edinbia-gh. Somerset held the hig'h land on the 
Phikie° rig'ht bank of the Esk, while the Scots, posted on 

rising ground on the left bank, waited for his attacks 
Aiter two days' inaction the Scots grew weary, and, crossing the 
Esk, advanced against the Eng'lish position. The battle was 
fought near the Tillage of PinJcie. At first the Scottish pikemen 
withstood and broke the shock of Lord Grey's cavalry, who 
rode down the hill to meet them. But the presence of mind of 
John Dudley, earl of Warwick, saved the situation. He charged 
the victorious Scots with fresh troops, and soon put them into 
confusion. Complete victory attended the English arms, but the 
first use Somerset made of it was to desolate all south-eastern 
Scotland with fire and sword. His military triumph counted 
P tnone- ^^^ little as compared with the complete political 
ment of the failure which attended it. The Scots, angry at the 
Seottish invasion, saved their queen from the danger of be- 

coming the bride of the English king, by despatching 
her to France, where she was educated to be a French- 
woman, a Catholic, and a bitter enemy of Eng'land. For another 
ten years Scotland remained Catholic because the Reformation was 
identified with England. 

4. France, as usual, took uj) the Scottish cause, and continental 
war soon followed war within Britain. The French now threat- 
ened Boulogne, Henry viii.'s conquest, but the English 

B°^1 s e garrison just held its own. Desultory war continued 
until after Somerset's fall, when peace was made both 
with France and Scotland on terms that undid the work of Henry 
VIII. By it Boulogne was restored to the French. 

5. At home Somerset threw his chief energy into bringing about 
a further reformation of the Church. Cranmer, his chief adviser, 
ProsTPess of -^^^ ^^ ^^^ time drifted,, far away from Henry viii.'s 
■theRefopma- via Tnedia, and had become a disciple of the German 
tion. Lutherans. Royal visitors of the Church were sent 
throughout the land and instructed to break down images of 
paints, stone altars, and emblems that savoured of the ancient 
raith. Bishops of the old learning, like Bonner and Gardiner, 
struggled in vain against the visitors, and, before long, were im- 
prisoned and deprived of aD. power. A new standard of doctrine 



-I549-] EI) WARD VI. 355 

was set forth, in a Booh of Homilies, written in English, which the 
more igiiorant clergy, wlio could not preach sermons of their own, 
were instructed to read to their flocks as the official teaching of 
the Church. Soon parKament met, and by repealing the Six 
Articles statute and other laws of Henry viii., made further 
changes easier. Priests were allowed to marry, and fresh confisca- 
tions of Church property were ordered. Such colleges and chantries 
as Henry viii. had not time to suppress were abolished, and most 
of the money thus procured from the Church was squandered 
among Somerset's friends and councillors. The protector himseK 
did not scruple to appropriate a good share of the spoil. A few 
hospitals and schools in connection with suppressed churches were 
suffered to remain, and Edward vi. has won the reputation, which 
is Yery little deserved, of being a liberal founder of hospitals and 
schools. He deserves little more credit for giving his name to 
such old schools as he allowed to survive the general ruin, than 
Henry viii. merited by continuing Wolsey's college at Oxford as 
a foundation of his own. 

6. The most important of the religious changes now brought 
about was the abolition of the Latin services of the Church and 
the setting up of an English Prayer-book. Under 

Henry viii. some progress had been made in that ppaver-^ 
direction, and Cranmer had been engaged since 1543 book of 
in drafting a form of common prayer in English. Edward VI., 
His labours culminated in the Act of TJnifotmiity of 
1549, which enjoined that all churches should henceforward use the 
English services contained in the First Prayer-booh of Edward VI. 
This was a very careful and reverent translation of the mediaeval 
Latin services into the vulgar tongue, with certain omissions and 
alterations and the combination of the numerous short forms 
of the older worship into the order for Morning and Evening 
Prayer. Cranmer, at his worst when his weakness made him the 
puppet of contending poKticians, was at liis best when engaged 
in this work. Though he had lost his faith in m.uch of the ancient 
creed, his timid, scholarly, and sensitive mind clung to the old 
forms even when they had ceased to have their old meaning to him, 
while Ms exquisite literary sense made the new prayers models of 
pure and dignified English. Ln the Communion Service wliich 
was to replace the Latin mass, great care was taken to maintaiu 
ancient ceremonies and deal tenderly with conservative sentiment. 

7. EngKshmen were no lovers of novelties, and the pains 
bestowed on making the new service seem like the old were 



356 EDWARD VI. [1549- 

thrown away on those who still cherished the ancient rites. When 
fche Prayer-book was first read in a Devonshire village chnrch, 
the congregation forced the priest to go hack to his 
Devonshire I^atin mass, declaring that the new service was like 
rebellion of a Christmas game. Then they rose in revolt after 
1549. ^^ fashion of the Pilgrims of Grrace. They demanded 

the restoration of the mass and the Six Articles, and found the 
south-west overwhelmingly on their side. 

8. The Devonshire revolt against the Prayer-hook was only one 
of Somerset's difficulties. He was mnch troubled by opposition 

within the council, where he was soon found out to be 
of Thomas ^^'^ weak to play the part which Henry viii. himself 
Seymour, had found was all that he could do to fulfil. His own 
1549. brother, Thomas Seymour, now Lord Seymour of 

Sudeley, an ambitious, rash, and fooKsh person, had intrigued 
against Mm, and early in 1549 the protector found it necessary 
to put him to death by an act of attainder. But the discontent 
among the people was even more formidable to him than the cabals 
of his rivals. While the conservative south-west was in arms against 
novelties, the reformers in the eastern counties, who had no com- 
The Norfolk plaints against Somerset's religious policy, set up 
rebellion of another rebellion which had its centre round Norwich. 
1 549. Tjy^Q enclosure of commons, the turning of plough-land 

into pasture, and the greediness of the new landlords who had taken 
the place of the easy-going monastic proprietors, had borne hardly 
upon the Norfolk peasantry. Things were worse now than they 
had been thirty-five years before when More wrote his Utopia, and 
the new gospel had done nothing to better the position of the poor 
man. A quarrel between Robert Ket, lord of the manor of 
Wymondham, and a neighbouring landlord now set the whole 
countryside in a blaze. Before long Ket put himself at the head 
of a mob which pulled down fences round enclosures, and demanded 
that all villeins should be set free. An army soon collected under 
the popular leader, who held a sort of court under an oak tree called 
by him the Oak. of Reformation on Household Heath, near Norwich. 
He kept wonderful order among his followers, and sent up moderate 
demands to the council. Getting no answer, he took possession of 
Norwich, and defeated the king's troops. 

9. Somerset was eager to put down the Devonshire rebels, but 
he sympathized with the Norfolk men, though he was too weak to 
remedy their wrongs. Both revolts soon rose to a great head, 
and the protector was helpless to put them down. Public order 



-IS50-] EDWARD VI. 357' 

had to be restored, and stronger men now pushed him aside. John 
Russell, afterwards earl of Bedford, crushed the Devonshire revolt. 
\vhile Warwick put down the eastern rebellion with y2\\ of 
fierce ruthlessness. A little later the council deprived Somepset, 
Somerset of the protectorate, and imprisoned him *549. 
in the Tower. So impotent did the fallen ruler seem that his 
enemies, with unusual leniency, soon released him from prison, 
and restored him to the council. 

10. Henceforth the councU resolved to keep authority in its 
own hands. But if it were hard for Somerset to wield the power 
of a Heniy, it was quite impossible for the g-reedy and 
self-seeking councillors to maintain that strong rule ascendency 
which alone could sat^e the state from confusion, of Warwick, 
Gradually John Dudley, the earl of Warwick, son of 1549-1553. 
the minister of Henry vii., executed in 1510, worked his way into 
the first place. A successful soldier of overweening ambition, he 
professed a great zeal for reforming the Church, and made himself 
the head of the resolute little party which looked upon the changes 
effected by Somerset as only small instalments of that com- 
plete reformation which they now desired to bring about. The 
misfortunes of continental Protestantism now played 
into their hands. Luther and Francis i. were both influence 
dead, and Charles v., who was trying hard to put down of the 

the German Reformation, seemed on the very point of foJ'eign 

reformei's. 
success. A swarm of exiles fled from his tyranny to 

England, whose leaders, Martin Bucer of Strassburg and Peter 
Martyr an Italian, were made professors of theology at Oxfor'i 
and Cambridge. They became the chief teachers of the forward 
school in England, and soon had plenty of disciples. Cranmer 
himself was now drifting away from Luther, and was inclining 
towards the more revolutionary teaching of the Swiss reformer 
Zwingle, who denied the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. 
His chaplain, the learned Nicholas Ridley, an avowed Zwinglian, 
was made bishop of London in succession to Bonner, who was at 
last deprived of his see for resisting the Prayer-book, and kept, 
like Gardiner, in prison for the rest of the reign. Another new 
bishop was John Hooper of Gloucester, the first EngKsh Pui-itan, 
who long refused to wear the old episcopal vestments, regarding 
them as rags of popery. All these men looked up to Warwick 
to bring about innovations in the Church, and Warwick gladly 
furthered their wishes, since each fresh change meant new distribu- 
tions of Church property among himself and his allies. 



358 EDWARD VI. 11552- 

THE DUDLEYS 

Edmund Dudley, 

extortioner, 

executed 1610. 

I 

Jolin Dudley, 

earl of Warwick, 1547, 

duke of Northumberland, 1551, 

executed 1553. 



Ambrose Dudley, Robert Dudley, Guildford Dudley, 

earl of Warwick. earl of Leicester, m. Ladj'^ Jane Grey, 

d. 1588. executed 1554. 

11. The scramble for Clmrcli property soon grew worse and 

worse. Many bishoprics were suppressed, including Henry vni.'s 

new see of Westminster, and the revenues of those 
The 
scramble suffered to remain were cut down. Laymen appointed 

for the themselves to ecclesiastical offices, and pocketed the 

th°^Ch°^ h revenues without performing- the duties. The colleges 

at Oxford and Cambridge were tlireateiied, and it 

looked as if aU the lands of the Church would be filched from her. 

12. There was much discontent, but few ventured to speak. The 
best and bravest of the Protestants, Hugh Latimer, said that 
Execution things were worse than in the old days of popery, 
of Somerset J Deprived of his bishopric of Worcester in 1539, he 
100^. refused to accept another see, and devoted himself to 
preaching the new gospel with absolute honesty and rare freedom 
of speech. The young king gladly listened to his sermons, but he 
told the truth so fully that the council bade him preach no more 
before the court. In their despair the people turned to the fallen 
Somerset as a deliverer. But he was far too deeply discredited to be 
able to stem the tide. His feeble efforts to win back power only led 
to the completion of his ruin. Early in 1552 he was beheaded as a 
felon, and Warwick, now duke of ^Northumberland, secured com- 
plete ascendency. He alone had the ear of the young king, and 
could carry everything as he would. 

13. Sweeping religious changes were now brought about. The 
Prayer-book of 1549 seemed to be too old-fashioned; it was re- 
vised in a more Protestant sense, and in 1552 a new 

Ppayer- ^^^ ^f Uniformity required the use in churches of this 

book of Second Prayer-hooh of Edward VI. The changes in 

1552^^*^^^" ^^^ Communion Office showed the great advance of 
Zwinglian doctrine, and tended to set aside the dogma 
of the Heal Presence which had been fully recognized in the earlier 



-1553.] EDWARD VI. 359 

book. But Cranmer was still able to keep up no small measure of 
the spirit of tlie earKer oifice, and of all the reforms of Edward's 
reign, his Prayer-book is among" the most enduring and valuable. 
In most essentials the book of 1552 is the same as the present 
service-book of the English Church. 

14. Other gi-eat changes followed. The most important of these 
was the new Protestant form of doctrine embodied in the Forty-two 
Articles of Religion of 1553. Derived largely from the 
Lutheran confession of faith, these articles show much Porty-two 
more than the Prayer-book how the English Church Articles, 
had fallen in with the views of the continental re- ^^^^• 
formers. They are the basis of the Thirty-nine Articles, which 
under Elizabeth became the permanent standards of dogma in the 
English Church. 

15. All seemed going well with Northumberland and the 
reformers. Edward, now sixteen years of age, was strongly on 
their side, and, young as he was, had already made it -j-j^g failure 
clear that he had inherited some of the strong wiU and of Edward 
royal imperiousness of his father. A grave, precocious, ^ health, 
and solitary boy, he had been overworked from his tenderest years, 
and had worried himself over problems of Church and State when 
other children were at their play. His deKcate frame was unable to 
bear the strain put upon it, and he soon lay dying with consumption. 
He was much troubled by the dangers that he foresaw would assail 
Protestantism after his death. By law the next heir was his half- 
sister, the Lady Mary, the daughter of Cathariae of Aragon. 
Though Mary had been, like her sister Elizabeth, declared illegiti- 
mate after her mother's divorce, she had been restored to her place 
in the succession. Parliament, foreseeing disaster if the succession 
were disputed, had passed an act empowering Henry -j-j^g testa- 
VIII. to settle the future devolution of the crown by his ment of 
testament. Henry had drawn up such a will whereby H^^''^ '' ^"* 
he had arranged that his two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, might 
both succeed in order of birth if Edward, the undoubted heir, died 
without children. Moreover, he provided that if these also died 
without heirs, the throne should next be settled upon the descendants 
of his younger sister Mary, duchess of Suffolk, passing thus over 
his elder sister Margaret, q[ueen of Scots, whose representatives, 
being rulers of Scotland, Henry regarded as disqualified from being 
kings of England. But these problems were as yet far in the 
future. 

16. Edward vi.'s zealous Protestantism was very uneasy at the 



360 - EDWARD VI. [1553. 

prospect of being succeeded by Ids sister. Mary was a bitter enemy 
of tlie Beforination, and bad clung' to tbe mass despite Acts of 
Uniformity and English Prayer-books. Tinder her the 
device light of the Grospel would be extinguished, and Edward 

for the -^as according'ly well pleased when E^orthumberland 

suggested an illegal plan for changing the succes- 
sion in the interests of Protestantism. Northumberland easily 
persuaded the masterful young king that, like his father, he also 
could assign the throne by testament. He induced him to set 
aside not only Mary, but Elizabeth, who had not shown hostility to 
the new system. In their stead, Edward bequeathed the throne 
to the Lady Jane Grrey, the eldest child of Frances, duchess of 
Suffolk, the daughter of his aunt, Mary Tudor, and Charles Bran- 
don, her second husband. Lady Jane was a girl of about Edward's 
age, with something of her cousin's seriousness, and all his zeal for 
the Reformation. But the chief reason for her advancement was 
that she had been married to Lord Guildford Dudley, one of 
Northumberland's sons. It is clear that the real motive of tlj.e 
duke was to reign through his daughter-in-law. 

17. Edward had hardly drawn up his will before he became 
worse, and died on July 6, 1553. Eor two days his death was kept 
J g secret, while Northumberland won over the councillors 
and Queen to give then' support to the scheme. Then Lady 
Mary, 1553. jg^^^^ ^^^g proclaimed queen of England. But no one, 
save the zealous Protestants and Northumberland's greedy council, 
wished to have her as queen. AH felt that Mary had the better 
title, and no one wished to continue the selfish Northumberland in 
power. Mary fled to the eastern counties, where the people, 
Protestants though they were, warmly supported her cause. 
Northumberland started from London to oppose her, but when he 
reached Cambridge his troops mutinied, and he was forced to give 
up the attempt. After a ten days' nominal reign, the unfortunate 
Lady Jane gave place to King Henry's daughter, amidst universal 
rejoicings. 



CHAPTER V 

MARY (1553-1558) 

Chief Dates : 

1553. Accession of Mary. 

1554. Restoration of papal supremacy. 
I555« Execution of Ridley and Latimer. 
1556. Execution of Cranmer. 

1558. Loss of Calais ; death of Mary. 

1, Mary, the first queen regnant in England, was tiiirty-seven 
years old when she ascended the throne. She was brave, honourable, 
and religious, but her health was broken and her Accession 
temper soured by the miserable life of self -suppression of Mary, 
wliich she had led. She had her full share of the fierce ^ ^^^* 
Tudor will and character, and had ever remained true to her 
mother's memory and to the ancient faith. She had consistently 
opposed the acts of her brother's ministers, and her accession 
was the more welcome since it involved the reversal of their 
Xjolicy. 

2. Mary's first business was to undo the religious changes of her 
brother'i reign. N^orfolk, Gardiner, Bonner, and the other victims 
of Edward's ministers, were released from prison, and 
became her chief advisers. She showed no great Edward's 
vindictiveness against the friends of Lady Jane, and reign 
only Northumberland, with two of his subordinate """0°®' 
agents, atoned for their treason on the scaffold. Lady Jane and her 
husband were condemned to death, but were suffered to remain in 
prison. The Protestant bishops were driven from their sees, and 
foreign Protestants were ordered out of the realm. As Cranmer 
and the leading Protestants had become accomplices of Northumber- 
land, it was easy to attack them as traitors as well as heretics. 
When parliament met, it declared Mary to be Henry's legitimate 
daughter, repealed Edward vi.'s acts concerning religion, and 
restored the Six Articles, the mass, and the celibacy of the clergy. 

361 



362 MAJ^V [S554- 

Tlie effect of this was to bring back the Cliurcli to the state in 
which it had been at the death of Henry viii. So completely did 
the queen restore her father's legislation that sjie even assimied the 
title of Supreme Head of the Church. For more than a year no 
further religious changes were effected. Yet the daughter of 
Catharine of Aragon had not much more love for the system of her 
father than for that of her brother. Her real wish was to make 
England as it had been before Henry questioned her mother's 
marriage. Politically, she wished to restore the imperial alliance ; 
ecclesiastically, she was eager to bring back the pope and the monks. 
But Gardiner and her ministers had been so long identified with 
Henry viii.'s policy that they thought the reaction had gone far 
enough. It required all the fierce persistency of the new queen to 
realize these objects. 

3. Parliament wished the queen to marry an English nobleman. 
But Charles v., who had always been her good friend, proposed 
The Spanish ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^ husband his eldest son, Philip, prince of 
ma-ppiage, Spain. Maryeagerlyfell in with the suggestion, though 
1554. Philip was eleven years her junior, and there was a 

grave danger to Eng-lish independence in the queen becoming the 
wife of the heir of Charles v. But Philip represented her mother's 
family, and was already famous for his uncompromising zeal for the 
E/oman Catholic Church. Thinking that her marriage with him 
would realize all her ambitions by one stroke, she disregarded the 
advice of council and parliament, and signed the marriage-treaty 
in January, 1554. The people's dislike of the Spanish marriage 
took shape in a series of revolts such as always atte.nded an un- 
popular step on the part of a Tudor monarch. The most formidable 
of these was that led by Sir Thomas "Wyatt, the gallant young son 
of Wyatt the poet, who raised Kent and Susses agaiust the Spanish 
match. At the head of a great following of disorderly Kentishmen, 
he marched to London, and occupied Southwark. There was a 
panic in the city, which was only appeased when the queen went 
down to the Guildhall and inspired the Londoners with some of her 
own courage. Before long', Wyatt was overpowered and captured. 
This second rising was dealt with more sternly than the attempt of 
Northumberland, Wyatt and other leading rebels were executed, 
and Lady Jane and Lord Guildford Dudley were put to death under 
their former sentence. The Lady Elizabeth, whose claims the 
rebels had upheld, was- for a time imprisoned in the Tower, But 
Wyatt on the scaffold declared that she had no knowledge of the 
conspiracy, and Elizabeth was soon set free. Henceforward the 



-I555-] MARY. 363 

daugliter of Anne Boleyn scmpulonsly kept on g-ood terms with 
her sister, and attended mass with, a gTeat show of devotion. ^Now 
that the revolt was suppressed, Philip came to England, and was 
married to Mary hy G-ar diner in Winchester Cathedral. 

4. Mary strove her utmost to bring about a reconciliation 
between England and the papacy. Though Gardiner had first 
made his name by defending- ^ the royal supremacy 

under Henry Tin., his experience under Edward vi. tionofthe 
seems to have convinced him that his old master's papal 
" middle way " led in practice to the Protestantism supremacy, 
which he had always opposed. He was, therefore, 
willing' to fall in with his mistress' plans. The chief opposition to 
Mary came from the lay nobles who had been enriched with the 
spoils of the monasteries. Knowing that the queen wished to bring 
back the monks as well as the pope, they trembled for their new 
estates, and refused to accept a papal restoration until they were 
assured that the abbey-lands would not be given back to the Church. 
When the pope had promised not to insist upon the restoration of 
the monasteries, all difficulties were removed. A new parliament, 
which met in November, 1554, repealed Henry viii.'s laws against 
Rome, declared unlawful the title of Supreme Head of the Church 
which Mary had borne since her accession, and restored the old laws 
against heresy. One of the acts of this parliament was the reversal 
of the attainder which in Heiuy viii.'s time had been passed against 
Cardinal Pole. Pole, now one of the leading advisers of the pope, 
had some time before been apporuted papal legate, but had long 
been impatiently waiting beyond the Channel untU matters were 
ripe for his return. He was at last suffered to land in England, 
where Mary gave him the warmest of welcomes. A few days later, 
he solemnly pronounced the restoration of England to com- 
munion with the Roman Church. Thus the resolute purpose of 
the queen destroyed the work of her father as weU as that of her 
brother. It is significant that there was no such popular revolt 
against the restoration of the papacy as there had been against the 
Spanish marriage. 

5. There remained the punishment of those who refused to 
change their religion to please the queen. Many of the Protestant 
leaders under Edward vi. had escaped to the Con- jj^^ Marian 
tinent. But the most prominent of the Edwardian pepsecution, 
bishops were awaiting in prison the moment of the l°^°"1558. 
queen's vengeance. The revival of the heresy laws by the last 
parliament enabled them to be dealt with. Early in 1555 Pole as 



364 MARY [1555- 

legate set up a commission to try heretics, and on February 2, 
Jokn Rogers, a prebendary of St. Paul's, who bad taken a promi- 
nent part in translating the Bible into English, was the first 
to lay down Ms life for bis faitb. His martyrdom was rapidly 
followed by that of tbe Puritan Bisbop Hooper of Grloucester. 
Alone among tbe Protestant leaders. Hooper bad refused to take 
part in Nortbumberland's effort to deprive Mary of ber tbrone, 
but bis loyalty availed bim notbing. He was condemned as a 
heretic, deprived of bis bishopric, and burnt at Grloucester under 
tbe shadow of bis own cathedral, A little later Bishop Ferrar 
of St. David's was burnt at Carmarthen, the chief town of bis 
diocese. He was one of the most obscure and harmless of the 
bishops, but this did not prevent bis being singled out as an 
example. 

6. More prominent Protestant martyrs followed in Latimer, 
E-idley and Cranmer. Like Hooper, Latimer had bad no share in 
Martyrdom ^Northumberland's treason, and was so generally re- 
ef Latimer spected that he was long allowed to remain at large, and 
an laiey. qyqtj chance was given bim to escape to the continent. 
But he scorned to flee, and cheerfully journeyed to London to answer 
a charge of heresy. Ridley and Cranmer had been deeply implicated 
in ^N'ortbumberland's conspiracy, but the queen preferred to keep 
them in prison until they might be punished as heretics rather 
than execute them earlier as traitors. In March, 1555, all three 
were sent to Oxford to dispute with Catholic divines on the doctrine 
of the mass. After many disputations and delays, a commission of 
bishops on October 1 sentenced Ridley and Latimer. A fortnight 
later they met their end with splendid courage. 

7. Cranmer still lingered for five months in bis Oxford prison. 
He had been consecrated before the breach with Rome, and bad 
The fate of duly received bis jpallium from the pope. He could not, 
Cranmer, therefore, be condemned so swiftly as the schismatic 
1556. bishops whose power the Church had never recognized. 
An archbishop could only be tried and deprived by the pope himself, 
and the papal court moved slowly. At last bis condemnation and 
degradation were effected, whereupon the pope appointed Pole bis 
successor as archbishop. In February, 1556, Cranmer's priestly 
gown was torn from bim, and, clad as a layman, he was handed over 
to tbe sheriff for execution. He was an old man, and bis character 
bad always been feeble. At the last moment he was persuaded to 
recant, and his cruel enemies forced him to sign no less than seven 
forms of abjuration. But there was no mercy for the man who 



-1558.] MAHY 365 

had divorced Catliariiie of Arag-on, and, despite his submission, he 
was ordered to execution. On March 21, before the sentence was 
effected, he was taken to the university church to hear a sermon 
on the enormity of his offences. At its end he was called upon to 
read his recantation to the people. The timid scholar found his 
courage in the presence of death. " I renounce," he said, " and 
refuse all such papers as I have written and signed with my 
hand since my deg-radation, wherein I have written many 
things untrue, and as my hand offended, my hand therefore shall 
be first burnt." He was at once hurried from the church 
to the stake. When the fire was lighted, he plunged his right 
hand into the flame, exclaiming, " This hand has offended." 
The courage of his end did something to redeem the weakness of 
his life. 

8. The five episcopal victims were the most conspicuous of the 
Marian martyrs. Though nearly three hundred other persons 
perished for their religion between 1555 and 1558, the jj^g lessep 
great majority of them were obscure clergymen, victims of 
tradesmen, and workmen. Nearly all the martyrs pepsecution, 
came from London and its neighbourhood. This was partly 
because Bonner, who was again bishop of London, and Pole, 
whose diocese included most of Kent, were the most active of the 
persecuting prelates. But the truth was that outside the home 
counties there were few Protestants to burn. The only other 
dioceses where victims were numerous were those of Norwich and 
Chichester (see map on page 342). Thus the limitation of the perse- 
cution to so short a time and so small an area made it the more 
severe. Sympathy with the brave deaths of the sufferers did more 
to set up a Protestant party in England than all the laws of King 
Edward or aU the preaching of his divines. 

9. The fierce persecution of the Protestants has given Mary and 
her advisers an evil reputation in history which they do not alto- 
gether deserve. In the sixteenth century, as in the 

Middle Ages, it was still thought the business of the tole^tion*^ 
state to uphold religious truth and to put down false in the 

teachinar by the severest means. To tolerate error sixteenth 

centupy. 
was regarded as a sin, and it was looked upon as some- 
thing like rebellion for a subject to reject the religion of his 
sovereign. Protestant and Catholic kings alike had sent those 
who disagreed with their doctrines to the scaffold. We have seen 
how many were the victims of Henry viii.'s ecclesiastical policy. 
Edward vi. had burnt the extreme Protestants called Anahavtists, 



366 MARY ' [1553- 

and Calvin Mmself liad condemned to death tlie Unitarian Ser- 
vetus. Tke faults of Mary and Pole were those of fanatics and 
enthusiasts, and not those of cmel or nnscrnpnlons persons. Even 
Bonner was coarse and caUous rather than vindictive or iLL-natured, 
The real punishment of Mary and her friends was in their com- 
plete failure to stamp out their enemies "by force. Fortunately for 
his reputation, Gi-ardiner died in 1555, at the very beginning of the 
persecution. 

10. It was not only by repression that Mary strove to secure 
the triumph of her Church. She forced her parliament to restore 

firstfruits to the pope, and spent what money she 
^f°M^*^°^ could in reviving a few of the monasteries, including 

Westnunster Abbey. G-rave troubles at home and 
abroad soon distracted her energies into other channels. She had 
disputes with her House of Commons, which, for the first time 
under the Tudors, showed a disposition to oppose the g'overnment. 
There were several popular revolts, and some of the bolder Protestant 
refugees procured ships from Prance with which they practised 
piracy -on the English coasts. The queen's health became wretched, 
and her domestic life was most unhappy. Pole was her only 
real friend, and PliiKp of Spain neg'lected her utterly until he 
wished to secure her help in the war which he was waging against 
France. 

11. Between 1552 and 1559 the last of the great struggles 
between Prance and the Empire was being fought. Henry 11., king 

of Prance siuce his father Francis's death in 1547, 
The war proved himseK as formidable to Charles and Philip as 

Fpanee and ever his father had been. After successfully saving 
the Empipe, -^jj^^ German Protestants from Charles's designs against 

them, Henry allied himseK with Pope Paul iv. to 
upset imperial domination in Italy. He succeeded so far that 
Charles v., crippled with gout and weary with his misfortunes, 
abdicated his dominions in 1556. His German possessions and the 
name of emperor went to his brother Ferdinand, king* of Hungary 
and Bohemia, who became the founder of the junior or Austrian 
branch of the house of Hapsburg. Spain and the Indies, Italy, 
the E'etherlands, and the county of Burgundy went to Mary's 
husband. 

12. Philip II. of Spain made a great effort to secure victory 
over France. In 1557 he persuaded Mary to take part in the 
struggle, and broke the back of the French resistance by his famous 
victory of St. Quentvn. He restored the Hapsburg power in 



-1558.] MARY 367 

Italy by crusking Paul iv. as completely as his father had defeated 

Clement vii. Henceforth the papacy was reduced, like the other 

Italian states, to obey the will of Philip, who completely England at 

dominated Italy. Deprived of temporal power, the war with 

popes were thrown hack upon their ecclesiastical posi- ^^f^?^^' 

tion, in the strengthening of which they could count 

on Philip's support. It was, however, a strange irony that Mary 

was forced by her Catholic husband to be a party to war against the 

pope, whom she had restored to the headship of the English Church. 

Beaten on the battlefield, Paul iv. revenged his defeat by accusing 

Cardinal Pole of heresy and depriving him of his position as papal 

legate. The French also reveng-ed themselves for Philip's triumphs 

at St, Quentin at ihe expense of his weak ally. In January, 1558, 

they stormed Calais, the last remnant of the triumphs 

of the Hundred Years' War. The loss of Calais was R®^^^ ?f ^^ 

Mary, 1558. 

the final blow to the unhappy Mary. She died 
November 17, 1558, and twelve hours later Cardinal Pole followed 
her to the tomb. Both died conscious of failure. The work to 
which they had devoted their lives was forthwith to be undone 
after their decease. 



CHAPTER VI 

ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 

(1558-1587) 

Chief Dates : 

1558. Accession of Elizabeth. 

1559. Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity. 
1561. MsiTy Stewart returns to Scotland. 
1565. Parker's Advertisements. 

1568. Mary Stewart escapes ro England. 

1569. Revolt of the Northern Catholics. 

1570. The pope excommunicates Elizabeth. 
1572. The revolt of the Dutch from Spain. 
1576. Grindal, archbishop of Canterbury. 

1577-1580. Drake's voyage round the world. 

1579. The Union of Utrecht and the Desmond rebellion. 

1583. Whitgift, archbishop of Canterbury. 

1584. The Bond of Association and the breach with Spain. 

1586. Babington's plot and the battle of Zutphen. 

1587. Execution of Mary Stewart. 

1. Elizabeth was just five and twenty wlien site became cj[ueen. 
She was tall and good-looking, witL. strong features, a great hooked 
Charaetep nose, fair complexion, and light anburn hair. Pos- 
and policy of sessed of a magnificent constitution, she worked as 
Elizabeth. liard at amusing herself as on business of state. She 
inherited many of her father's kingly q[ualities, and made herself 
popular by her hearty friendly ways and by going on progress 
tiiroughout the country and receiving the hospitality of the 
gentry. With Henry's love of power and instmct for command, 
she also inherited some of her father's coarseness and insensibility. 
She was unscrupulous, regardless of the truth, and even in small 
matters there was little that was womanly or sensitive about her. 
Selfish as she was, she had a full share of that fine Tudor instinct 
which identified itself with the country which she ruled, and she 
watched over the interests of England as she looked after her own 
personal affairs. Though carefully educated, like all Henry's 
children, she was little influenced by the literary movements of 
her age, and, thoug-h forced as Anne Boleyn's daughter to take 
368 



1558.] ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 369 

up tlie reforming" side in reKgion, she was to a very small 
extent affected by religious feeling. Clear-lieaded, far-seeing, and 
competent, strong, courageous, and persistent, her great delight 
was in exercising power, and she loved to rule so well that she 
would not share her authority even with a husband. To her 
father's strength and statecraft Elizabeth also added a large share 
of her mother's lig'ht and frivolous character. She was extremely 
vain, and enjoyed the grossest flattery. She loved gorgeous 
dresses, and as she grew old delighted to hide the ravages of time 
by false hair, paint, monstrous ruffs, and stiff farthingales. She 
found it hard to make up her mind in little matters, and found it 
politic seldom to show her full purpose in great ones. But she 
showed a rare consistency of purpose in carrying out for the forty- 
five years of her reign the same g'eneral policy which she had 
marked out for herself at the moment of her accession. Amidst 
the many trials of a period of revolution, she safely steered the 
ship of state throug-h the breakers, and was able to enjoy during 
her declining years the calms that succeeded the storms of her 
middle life. Never a very attractive or amiable woman, she was 
one of the greatest of our rulers, and in the worst trials of her 
reign she did not lose faith either in England or in herself. 

2. Like Henry viii., Elizabeth was her own chief minister, but 
few rulers have had more able statesmen to assist her in carry- 
ing" out her ideas. To these she clave with such per- 
sistence that her servants grew old in her service, ministers^ ^ 
and were unswervingly loyal to her, though she 
was niggardly in rewarding them, and callous in the extreme 
when policy made it expedient for her to shift the blame of an 
unpopular or risky act from herseK to her helpers. The chief of 
her advisers was Sir William Cecil, who, first as -pj^g Cecils 
secretary of state and then as treasurer, served and the 
her with unostentatious fidelity from her accession ^.cons. 
to liis death in 1598, though his efforts to make her policy more 
Protestant and more uncompromising were constantly discouraged 
by her, and he received no higher reward than the barony of 
Burghley, which made him, as he said, "the poorest lord in 
England." With him worked his brother-in-law. Sir Nicholas 
Bacon, the keeper of the Great Seal, whose long service was 
not even rewarded by the title of chancellor. Office was almost 
hereditary, and Sir Robert Cecil, Burghley's second son, was as 
prominent as the secretary of the queen's declining years as his 
father had been in the earlier part of her reign, while the lord 

2b 



370 ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS [1558- 

keeper's brilliant and ambitious son, Sir Francis Bacon, was 
bitterly disappointed tbat bis cousin's jealousy excluded him from 

following in tbe same way in bis fatber's footsteps. 
ham^^"^' Perbaps tbe ablest of Elizabetb's ad^dsers was Sir 

Francis "Walsingbam, secretary of state from 1573 
to 1590, wbose sincere but unscrupulous devotion to bis mistress's 
interests enabled bim to worm out tbe secrets of ber enemies and 
confound tbe plotters wbo were constantly striving* to deprive ber 
of ber life and tbronOc 

3. Beside tbe plain and bard- working statesmen was tbe crowd 
of wortbless courtiers, wbo amused tbe queen's leisure and glorified 
Leicester -^^^ beauty and wisdom. It was only in favour of 
and the tbese giddy pleasure-seekers tbat sbe broke tbrougb 
courtiers. ^^^ general rule of parsimony, by lavisbing grants and 
titles upon tbem. Tbe cbief among tbem was ber old playfellow, 
Lord Robert Dudley, tbe younger, son of tbe duke of Nortbumber- 
land, wbom sbe loved for old association's sake as well as for bis 
good looks, fine dress, and skill as a courtier. Sbe made bim earl 
of Leicester, and would bave married bim but for ber resolve to 
live and riile alone. Down to bis deatb in 1588 sbe never lost ber 
devotion to bim, and spoilt some of ber boldest enterprises by 
entrusting tbem to bis incompetent direction. 

4. Tbe first task tbat lay before tlie queen was tbe settlement of 
tbe Cburcb.. Sbe bad seen bow both Edward vi. and Mary bad 

failed in tbeir ecclesiastical policy because eacb bad, 
Elizabethan "^^^^8"^'^ ^^ different ways, taken up too extreme a line, 
settlement Sbe bad unbounded f aitb in ber f atber, and experience 
rU^^ii clearly brougbt bome to ber tbe excellence of tbe 

middle way tbat Henry viii. bad pursued. Grreat 
difficulties, bowever, beset ber on botb sides. Tbe Protestant 
exiles burried back to England and clamoured for a reformation 
even more tborougb- going tban tbat of Edward vi. But tbe 
ministers and bisbops of Mary were still in power, and tbe Catbolic 
party was strongly backed up from abroad. Moreover, since 
Gardiner and Bonner abandoned tbe system of Henry viii., tbere 
were few prominent men left wbo believed in bis particular policy. 
Elizabetb was forced, tberefore, to ally berself with tbe Protestants 
in order to defeat tbe Catbolics, and tbeir support could only be 
gained by reverting mainly to tbe system of Edward vi. Finding 
convocation opposed to all change, she fell back on parKament, 
where, in January, 1559, she carried through new Acts of Supremacy 
and "Uniformity, despite the opposition of the bishops. 



-1563.] ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 37 1 

5. The Act of Supremacy of 1559 followed tlie general lines 
of Henry yiii.'s Act of 1534, and completely renounced aU papal 
jurisdiction over England. But Elizabeth cautiously 

dropped the title of Supreme Head of the Church, and supremacy 
was content to be described as "the only supreme and 
Governor of this realm, as well in all spiritual or Uniformity, 
ecclesiastical things or causes, as temporal." After 
this fashion the queen sought to prevent men thinking that she, 
like her father, claimed to exercise spiritual jurisdiction over the 
Church, as though she were its chief bishop. The new Act of 
Uniformity showed the same spirit of compromise. E,oughly 
speaking, it restored the Second Prayer-book of Edward vi. as the 
future service-book of the English Church. Several significant 
changes were, however, made in it. The Communion Office was so 
drawn up that both the ZwingHan doctrine of the Eucharist and 
the opposing doctrine of the Real Presence mig-ht seem to be 
allowed, while the famous Ornaments Rubric was added, ordering 
that aU. ornaments of the Church should be retained as they were 
in the second year of Edward vi. 

6. So careful was Elizabeth to avoid committing herself that it 
was not until 1563 that she allowed a new statement of doctrine to 
be drawn up. This was contained in the Thirty-nine 

Articles, based on the Forty-two Articles of 1553, but Thirty-nine 
these articles had been carefully revised with the view Articles, 
of making them less offensive to the friends of the old ^^°^* 
faith. Such were the main outlines of the Elizabethan settlement 
of the Church. Though clothed for the most part in the forms 
of Edward w., it was inspired by the spirit of Henry viii. rather 
than that of Somerset or Northumberland. Its defects were 
that it was a settlement of a politician rather than that of an eccle- 
siastic, and, that while hated by the Roman Catholics, it was only 
accepted as a first instalment of change by the thorough- going 
Protestants. 

7. Elizabeth had made up her mind that no further alterations 
should be made, and having fixed the form of her Church, she now 
strove to enforce obedience to it. Only one of the Archbishop 
Marian bishops would accept her policv, and all the Parker, 

A X CIO A CI 7 C 

rest were deprived of their sees. The majority, in- 
cluding Bishop Bonner, spent the rest of their lives in prison. In 
their place, Elizabeth appointed as many bishops of her own way of 
thinking as she could find. She was especially lucky in procuring 
a man after her own heart as Pole's successor at Canterbury. This 



372 ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS [1559- 

was Matthew Parker, a wise and learned man, who, when deprived 
of his deanery of Lincoln nnder Mary, had preferred to live quietly 
in England rather than escape to the continent with the advanced 
reformers. Like Elizabeth, he looked on tilings from a purely 
English standpoint, and, after the queen, was the only prominent 
upholder of her middle way. In 1559 Elizabeth set up a permanent 
Court of Ecclesiastical Commission, called also the Sigh Com- 
mission Court, of which Parker was the chief commissioner. Its 
object was to exercise the royal supremacy over the Church, and 
enforce the Elizabethan settlement on all the clergy. 

8. Elizabeth insisted that all her subjects should accept her 
creed and attend her Church, and gradually imposed fines and 

other penalties on those who refused to do so. The 
and the friends of the pope who could not in conscience be 

Roman , ' present at Protestant services, were branded as Popish 
ics. Hecusants, and their lot constantly became harder. 
At first, however, Elizabeth and Parker did not experience much 
trouble from the Roman Catholics. Most of the parish clergy 
accepted the new settlement, though many were so disloyal to it 
that it was gradually found necessary to deprive a large number 
of their benefices. The majority of the friends of old ways were, 
however, too sluggish and inert to oppose the government 
effectively. The real trouble was not with the passive resistance 
of the old-fashioned clergy as much as with the unwillingness of 
the more ardent Protestants to accept the Elizabethan compromise. 

9. The leaders of the disaffected Protestants were the returned 
Marian exiles. Many of these had, during their banishment, 
Geneva become the disciples of the great Erench Protestant 
and the John Calvin, who, up to his death in 1564, reigned 
Calvinists. -^^ ^ despot over Chnrch and state in the free city 
of Geneva, the chief stronghold of advanced Protestantism on 
the continent. There they had become enthusiasts for the rigid 
dogmatic system called Calvinism, which taught that Grod was 
a stern taskmaster, dealing out salvation and reprobation in 
accordance with His predestined decrees. The Church of Geneva 
had, moreover, abandoned the rule of bishops, and was governed by 
little councils of ministers, all equal in rank, and named joreshyters, 
so that this system was called Preshyterianism. Moreover, it 
rejected fixed forms of prayer like those of the English service- 
books, and worshipped God with the utmost simplicity of ritual, 
while enforcing a rigid system of moral discipline over the whole 
congregation. Erom their profession of purity in doctrine. 



-1565.J ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 373 

worsMp, and life, tlie Eng-lish followers of Calvin were generally 
described as Puritans. 

10. To Calvin's followers in Eng-land, EKzabeth's Cliurcli 
seemed far removed from the apostolic purity of the Church of 
Geneva. If at first they supported it, in the hope that 
Elizabeth, like Edward vi., would soon bring about puHtans 
more chang*es, they became very discontented when and the 
they found that the queen had set her face against Elizabethan 
further innovations. Thejjr had no love of bishops, 

disliked set forms of prayer and elaborate ceremonies, and thought 
the special dress worn by the English clergy a reHc of Roman 
CathoKc times. Many of the Puritan clergy obstinately refused 
to wear surplices when conducting divine worship, and neglected 
such forms as the use of the sign of the cross in baptism and 
kneeling to receive the communion. Their opposition was the 
more important since they included the majority of the active and 
high-minded Protestants, and it was only with their help that 
Elizabeth could fig-ht the battle against Rome. For this reason 
the queen was forced for the first few years of her reign to let 
them have their own way. As she grew stronger, she resolved to 
enforce the law. The repression of Puritanism began in 1565, 
when the archbishop issued a series of directions to the clergy, 
called Parhers Advertisements, which ordered that the minister in 
all churches should wear a surplice, and conform to the jjjg Advep- 
other directions of the Prayer-book. Though the tisements, 
advertisements rather relaxed than changed the law, ^°°°* 
a storm of protest from the Puritans burst out against them. 
Nevertheless, Elizabeth and Parker persevered, and in 1566 about 
thirty clergymen, mainly in London, were deprived of their benefices 
for their obstinate refusal to wear the vestments enjoined by law. 
Embittered by the queen's action, the Puritans soon broadened the 
ground of their attack on the Church. Not content with simply 
rejecting ceremonies, they denounced the government of the 
Church by bishops, and demanded that the English Church should 
be made Presbyterian like the Church of Geneva. The leader of 
this party was Thomas Cartwright, a professor of divinity at 
Cambridge, and a book called A71 Admonition to Parliament, 
written by two of his friends, explained his objections to the 
Prayer-book and episcopacy. 

11. Some of the clergy ejected for refusing to wear surpHces 
were not content to abandon their teaching, and formed separate 
congregations of their own. These were called Sectaries, because 



374 ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS [1558- 

tliey formed new sects, or Separatists, because they separated from 
tke Church altogether. One of their leaders was Robert Brown, 
who taught that there should be no national org*aniza- 
Separatists ^^^^ ^^ religion, but that each congregation was a 
self-governing Christian Church. From him the 
Separatists were called Brownists, and from his teaching they got 
the name of Independents. They were the first JProtestant Dis- 
senters in England, though for a long time they were few in 
number and bitterly persecuted. The mass of Puritans had, how- 
ever, no sympathy with the Separatists. They remained in the 
Church, and many of them held livings in it. Though always 
liable to be deprived of their benefices, many contrived to evade 
compliance with the hated ceremonies. Eor this reason they were 
called Nonconformists. But these early Nonconformists were dis- 
contented and disobedient Churchmen, not Dissenters. Separatists 
denounced them as " hypocrites, who strain at a gnat and swallow 
a camel." 

12. Parker died in 1575, and the new archbishop, Edmund 
G-rindal, was much more friendly to the Puritans. After a few 
years he provoked the queen's wrath by refusing to 
Grindal P^^ down, meetings of the Puritan clergy called 

1576, and Prophesyings, which Elizabeth disliked, because they 
Whitgift, encouraged the Zealots to resist her authority. In 
great anger, she suspended Grindal from his office, and 
soon afterwards he died in disgrace. In 1583 Elizabeth put into 
Grrindal's post John Whitgift, an old enemy of Cartwright at 
Cambridge and a bitter enemy of the Puritans, though, like most 
of the Elizabethan bishops, he was a Calvinist in theology. Whit- 
gift's strenuous enforcement of conformity infuriated the Puritans, 
and increased the number of Separatists, who revenged themselves 
for their persecution by attacking the bishops in scurrilous 
pamphlets, called the Martin Marprelate Tracts. Though the 
attitude of Puritans and Separatists showed that Elizabeth's ideal 
Hooker's ^^ ^ united and submissive Protestant Church was but 
" Eeclesiasti- ^ dream, the latter years of her reign saw a distinct 
eal Polity," strengthening of the Church and a weakening of ex- 
treme Puritanism. The close of the century was marked 
by the rise of a school of divines, whose teaching tended to draw a 
deeper line between the Church and the Puritans. The greatest 
of these was Richard Hooker, whose famous book on the Laws of 
Ecclesiastical Polity, published in 1593, showed that beautiful and 
seemly practices sanctioned by tradition were not to be rejected 



-i6o3.] ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 3/5 

because not enjoined in the Scriptures. Before long- otLers went 
further than Hooker, and taug-ht that a Church without bishops, 
such as the Puritans preferred, was no Church at all. Thus the 
system which had begun as a politic compromise began to hare 
defenders on grounds higher than expediency. Yet the Puritans 
remained a strong party in the Church, though it became increas- 
ingly difficult for them and their rivals to live side by side within 
the same communion. 

13. The period which ^aw Calvinism checked and limited in 

England witnessed the establishment of its absolute ascendancy in 

Scotland. For ten years after her daughter had been ^ , „ 

,,-.-. T/rf.^. IT ?n -n 1 John Knox, 

sent to France, Mary oi Gruise had upheld a French 

and Catholic policy in Scotland as successfully as Mary Tudor had 

upheld the Spanish and Catholic jwlicy in England. The few 

pioneers of Scottish Protestantism were driven into exile. Among 

these was a priest named Jolin Knox, whose fiery eloquence had 

made bim a popular preacher of extreme Protestantism in England 

under Edward vi., though Ms stern Puritan principles led him to 

refuse the bishoj)ric wliich was offered to liim. On Edward vi.'s 

death he fled to Geneva, and strengthened his Puritanism at the 

feet of Calvin. When Elizabeth became queen he wished to return 

to England, but she would not admit him because he had 

written a wild book called The Blast of the Trumpet against the 

Monstrous Regiment of Women, in which he denounced the rule 

of queens as contrary t*- the Scriptures. Thereupon Knox boldly 

^ returned to Scotland, where, despite Mary of Guise's efforts. 

Protestantism was beginning to make some headway. A leag'ue of 

Scots nobles, called the Lords of the Congregatimi, had been recently 

formed against the regent and the bishops. Knox now threw all 

his masterful energy and ujiconquerable will on the reforming side. 

A fierce fight between Mary of Guise and the lords of the congre- 

g-ation ensued. Though the people were strongly Protestant, the 

regent obtained troops from France, and pressed the rebels so hard 

that they were forced to appeal to Elizabeth for help. 

14. Elizabeth hated rebels and John Ejiox, but she saw the 
obvious advantange in winning over the Scots from France and the 
papacy, and, while professing not to approve of the ^j^g 
Scottish revolt, she sent, in 1560, sufficient forces to Refopmation 
Scotland to besiege the French in Leith. Mary of ^^ Scotland. 
Guise now died, and before long the defenders of Leith signed the 
treaty of Edinhurgh, by which both the English and French 
troops were to quit Scotland. As soon as foreign influence was 



376 ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS [1558- 

removed, the Scottisli Parliament abolished the power of the pope 
and accepted Knox's scheme for making the Church of Scotland 
correspond in all important points with the Church of Geneva. 
Popular tumnlts completed the destruction of the old Scottish 
Church. Churches and monasteries were burnt and pillag-ed, the 
mass violently suppressed, and the lands of the Church were seized 
by the victorious nobles. The only thing that Knox could not do was 
to persuade the Protestant lords to set aside a large share of Church 
property for the relief of the poor and the setting up of a school in 
every parish. The barons even grudged the scanty endowments left 
to the Protestant ministers. But however poor they were, Knox 
and his brother clergy henceforth exercised wonderful power over 
Scotland. The chief council of the Presbyterian Church, called 
the General Assembly, had more influence and better expressed the 
wishes of the people than the Scottish parliament. From the 
adoption of Presbyterianism the modern history of Scotland begins, 
for in welcoming the new faith the Scots nation first began to grow 
conscious of itself. Never were movements more strongly con- 
trasted than the short, swift, logical, destructive Reformation in 
Scotland and the political, compromising, haK-hearted English 
Reformation, imposed on a doubtful and hesitating people by the 
authority of the crown. But the movements had this in common, 
that in making Rome the common danger to both countries, it 
brought England and Scotland together in a fashion that had 
never been possible since Edward i.'s attacks on Scottish inde- 
pendence. Soon the old hostility began to abate between English 
and Scots, so that what had seemed to Henry viii. a quite im- 
possible thing — the acceptance by England of the king of Scots 
as their ruler — was peacefully accomplished after Elizabeth's 
death. 

15. While Scotland thus became Presbyterian, her queen was 
growing up to womanhood as a Catholic and a Frenchwoman. 
Beautiful, accomplished, tactful, and fascinating, she 
of Scots^^^'^ had rare capacity for commanding the sympathy and 
affection of those who were broug-ht into close relations 
with her. Different as she was from Elizabeth, there were yet as 
many points of comparison as of contrast between them. More 
straightforward and simple than her English rival, loving boldness, 
directness, and plain speaking, she rose superior to the petty 
vanities of Elizabeth, though she could not compete with her in 
persistency, hard work, and statecraft. Ambition and love of 
power were the guiding motives of both queens, though Mary was 



-1559-] ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS ^"JJ 

liable to be turned from her purpose by gusts of passion to wliicL. 
the colder nature of Elizabeth was almost a stranger. Both were 
born to be leaders of religious parties, and Mary, though almost 
as destitute of deep religious feeling as her rival, had the 
loyalty to the old Church which a good soldier has to his general, 
and strove with all her might to uphold its interests. It was her 
misfortune always to be the champion of the losing side, and thus 
to sacrifice her life in fighting impossible battles. In the cause of 
her Church and people she struggled with extraordinary courage 
and resource, and often with but little regard to honour or 
principle. She was no national queen like Elizabeth. When she 
came to Scotland her people were already hopelessly alienated from 
her creed and her French friends, and she was perforce compelled 
to play a more personal game than that of her rival. Yet the long 
struggle between them was not only the contest of rival queens ; it 
involved the last great struggle between the old and the new faiths 
of which circumstances had made them the champions. 

16. Even more than the preceding generation the age of 
Elizabeth is pre-eminently a period of religious conflict. Though 
Lutheranism had lost its early energy, Calvinism ^j^^ 
was still in its full career of conquest. It had over- Counter- 
whelmed Scotland and threatened England. It was Reforma- 
making great strides in France, and becoming in- 
creasingly powerful in the Netherlands. But side by side with the 
growth of Calvinism the forces of Catholicism had revived. The 
laxity and corruption of the old Church, which had made easy 
the preaching of Luther, were swept aside by a great reKg'ious 
revival in Catholic lands, called the Counter-Reformation, or 
the Catholic Reaction. The papacy had reformed itself, and the 
popes were no longer politicians or patrons of art, but zealots and 
religious leaders. New religious orders had been set up to teach 
the old faith to the heathen, the heretic, or the indifferent. Con- 
spicuous among these was the Order of Jesus, set up in 1540 by the 
Spaniard, Ignatius Loyola, and already conspicuous all over Europe 
for its zeal, tact, and devotion, its iron discipline, its influence on 
the education of the youth, and its willingness to sacrifice everything 
to further the service of the Church. Jesuit missionaries soon 
became the most ardent and successful champions of the Counter- 
Reformation, while for those whom no argument woidd reach there 
was still the Inquisition, revived and reorganized, a Church coiu't 
which sought out and tried heretics and handed them over to the 
state to burn them. The worst abuses of the Church had been 



3/8 ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS [1559- 

removed, its f aitL. defined, and its discipline improved by tlie Council 
of Trent, which held its final sessions in 1563. Thns the reform of 
Catholicism and the counter growth of Calvinism had the result of 
dividing Europe into two religious camps, bitterly opposed to each 
other, and ready to plunge into mortal conflict. The consequence was 
that the next forty years saw religious strife taking the i)lace of the 
old struggle of the nations for supremacy. National hatreds were 
almost forgotten in the fierce sectarian animosities that divided 
every nation in middle Europe iuto two factions, and soon was to 
bring about warfare in nearly every land. We shall never rightly 
understand the policy of Elizabeth if we do not realize that all 
her action, at home and abroad, was determined by her relation 
to the great struggle which was convulsing Euroi^e. 

17. The point of European history in which tbe Counter-Refor- 
mation began to complicate the general course of politics coincided 
The t eatv I'oughly with Elizabeth's accession. The war which 
of Le Cateau- Pliilip II. had waged with Eng-lisli kelp against 
Cambp^sis. France still lingered on, but Philip had so fully 
secured victory that, in April, 1559. France was compelled to 
make peace. This was done in the treaty of Le Cateau- Cambresis, 
by which Spain finally obtained the chief control of Italy, but 
allowed the French to keep Calais, so that England had to pay the 
price of her ally's success. This peace marks the end of the long 
struggle for supremacy in Europe wliich had begun with the war 
of Louis XII. against Maximilian and Ferdinand, and had culminated 
in the rivalry of Francis i. and Charles v. Though the dominions 
of Charles v. were divided, his son, Philip of Spain, the lord of 
the most iiuportant of his possessions, was incontestably the first 
power in Europe. The death of Henry 11. of France soon after 
the conclusion of the treaty added still further to Philip's pre- 
dominance. There were no more strong kings of France for more 
than thirty years, during which period the tliree worthless sons of 
Henry 11. successively ruled. 

18. Among the motives for the conclusion of the treaty of Le 
Cateau was the recognition by both the French and Spanish kings 

that it was inexpedient for the two chief Catholic 
and the * monarchs to continue fighting when neither of them 

Counter- was able to stop the growth of Protestantism in his 
tton ^'^^' ^^^ dominions. Philip now set himself to work with 

a will to stamp out Calvinism in his E'etherlandish 
possessions, while Francis 11. of France was, through his wife Mary 
Stewart, induced by her mother's kinsfolk, the house -of G-uise, 



-1563.] ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 379 

tlie most strenuous upholders of Catholicism in France, to take 

vigorous measures to suppress the Calvinists of Prance, who were 

more generally called Huguenots. National animosities, however, 

could not die down in a day, and Spain and Trance long p . ,, 

remained so exceedingly jealous of each other that and his 

they f omid it impossible to work together for a common Queen. 

purpose. This was particularly fortunate for England since French 

illwiU had hy no means ceased at the peace. "tSTot content with 

her position as queen of France and Scotland, M^y Stewart 

assumed the title of queen of England, and sti-ict Catholics were 

reminded that the pope had never sanctioned the marriage of 

Anne Boleyn to Henry viii., and that their daughter could never 

be therefore the legitimate queen of England. In Rivalry of 

the face of such a challenge Elizabeth can hardly be Mary and 

blamed for helping the Scottish Protestants to estabHsh Elizabeth. 

their supremacy. The result of the triumph of the Scottish 

Heformation was the practical destruction of Mary Stewart's 

power in her native land, since the Scots had effected their 

revolution without seeking for or obtaining her good wiU, and 

the effect of their action was to set up a Calvinistic republic in 

Scotland. 

19. Before many months, however, the sickly Francis 11. died, 

and liis brother and successor Charles ix. was controlled by their 

mother, Catharine de' Medici, a cunning Italian, who 

. The loss 

feared the G-uises, and sought to maintain the royal of Le 

power by balancing the Protestants against the Havre, 
Catholics. Heligious war broke out as the result of ^^^^* 
this in France, and the Huguenots, who were but a minority of 
Frenchmen, were so soon beaten that they called upon Elizabeth 
for help. Elizabeth, though professing a great reluctance to help 
rebels, soon succumbed, as in Scotland, to the temptation of making 
her profit out of the divisions of her enemies. She sent some help 
to the Protestants, who in return put her in possession of Le 
Havre, which she hoped to hold as an equivalent for Calais. Un- 
luckily for her the French factions made peace, and in 1563 united 
to expel the English from their new foothold beyond the Channel. 
But the weak rule of Charles ix. and the continuance of religious 
struggles prevented France from inflictmg harm on England. 
Moreover, French hostility to England made Philip ii. anxious to 
keep up liis alliance with her, despite his disgust at the religious 
changes brought about after Elizabeth's succession. Thus Elizabeth 
was able to steer between the rivalries of the chief continental 



380 ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS [1561- 

powers. The continuation of tlie old national animosities saved 
England from the greatest danger that she could encounter — the 
danger, namely, of a comhination of Catholic powers against her. 
With great skill and cunning Elizabeth kept England as free as 
she could from the intrigues of the continent, and sought to work 
out her couatry's destinies after her own fashion. 

20. In 1561 Mary Stewart returned to Scotland. She had no 
prospects of power in France after her husband's death, and her 

, bold spirit preferred to abandon the comfort and repose 
Mary Queen ^-j^^^^ ^j^^ land of her adoption still offered the queen 
pestopedto dowager for the risks and excitement of attempting 
Scotland, to play the royal part in the country that hated her 
religion and rejected her authority. She was coldly re- 
ceived in Scotland, but she showed marvellous tact and seK-restraint, 
and gradually won over many of the nobles to her side. She was 
content to let the country be ruled in her name by her brother, 
James Stewart, earl of Moray, an illegitimate son of James v. She 
accepted the establishment of Calvinism, and only required liberty 
to hear mass. The only person unmoved by her blandishments 
was Knox. He bitterly denounced the services of the queen's 
private chapel. " One mass," he declared, " is more fearful to me 
than ten thousand armed enemies." 

21. Four years of inaction taught Mary that she had not much 
to hope for in Scotland. She was too ambitious to endure for 
_, _ ■ ever the position of a nominal queen, and as she 
marriage, could not get real power in Scotland, she once 
1565. more began to make England the chief centre of her 
efforts. The English Roman Catholics were getting more and more 
disgusted with the rule of Elizabeth, and were hoping that Mary 
would some day become their queen and restore their faith. 
Mary was delig-lited to become their champion, and preferred to 
see Elizabeth driven from the throne by force to the remote chance 
of waiting for her death. In 1565 she declared to the world her 
interest in English affairs by choosing as her second husband 
her cousin, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, the son of the earl of 
Lennoz, and near to the succession of the EngKsh throne, since 
his mother was the daughter of Margaret Tudor, the widow of 
James iv., by her second husband the earl of Angus. Darnley, 
who had been brought up in England, was a sort of leader of 
the English Catholics, and Elizabeth was so disgusted with the 
marriage, that she incited Moray and the Scots nobles to rise in 
revolt against it. Mary now felt strong enough to act for herseK. 



-1567.] ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 38 1 

Sine completed lier marriage with. Darnley, defeated Moray, and 
drore him out of Scotland. 

22. Mary soon found that her husband was so foolish and 
treacherous that he was useless to help her to carry out her plans. 
She gradually gave her chief confidence to an Italian 

named David Riccio, whom she raised from the yAq,c\q 1566 
position of one of the singing-men of her chapel to 
be her secretary. Darnley grew furiously jealous of the Italian 
upstart, and joined with some of the Scottish nobles in an intrigue 
against him. On March 9, 1566, while Hiccio was supping with 
the queen at Holyrood Palace in Edinburg-h, the conspirators 
suddenly burst into the room, dragged the shrieking secretary 
from her presence, and stabbed him to death in an ante-chamber. 
Stung to profound indignation by her favourite's murder, Mary 
kept her presence of mind ■v\'ith remarkable fortitude. She soon 
persuaded her weak husband to give up his associates and retui-n to 
her side. Then she fell upon the mui-derers and drove them out of 
the country. Like Moray, they fled to England, where Elizabeth 
readily sheltered them. Three months after Hiccio's murder. 
Mary's only child was born, the future James vi. of Scotland and 
I. of England. 

23. Mary and Darnley soon began to quarrel again. The 
queen now found a stronger and more capable instrument of 
her ambition in James Hepburn, earl of Bothwell, a „ , ^ 
ruffianly border noble of rare courage, energy, and Darnley, 
cleverness. Mary became his absolute slave, and 1567. 
scandal became busy with their names. BothweU made it his 
object to get Darnley out of the way so that Mary might be 
free to marry him. Accordingly he met some of the discontented 
nobles at Craigmillar Castle, near Edinburgh, where they signed 
what was called the Bmid of Craigmillar, by which the con- 
spirators pledged themselves to Darnley's death. Darnley, who 
was just recovering from a dangerous illness, now took up his 
quarters at a lonely house called the Kirh o' Field, a Kttle to 
the south of Edinburgh. On the night of February 9, 1567, 
the Kirk o' Field was blown up by gunpowder, and Darnley's 
body was found not far from the ruined house. There can be 
no doubt that Bothwell had accomplished the murder. What 
share Mary had in it is not easy to determine ; but it is probable 
that she both knew and approved of what Bothwell was doing, 
and it is certain that he in no \7ise forfeited lier favour. 

24. Lennox, Darnley's father, accused BothweU of his son's 



^82 ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS [1567- 

mnrder, and Mary, wlio was forced to seem anxious to avenge 
lier linsband's death, fixed a day for his trial. But good care was 
taken to make the proceedings a mere farce. Lennox himself was 




SCOTLAND 

in the i6th. & 17th. Centuries 

Clan names unrlci'linp.rl camerons 



Emery Walker sc. 



-1568.] ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 383 

afraid to appear, and no man ventured to give evidence against 
the queen's favourite. The court therefore acquitted Bothwell, 
and Mary made its action the excuse for once more Deposition 
giving* him her open support. Even now she was of the 
afraid to wed herself to the man whom all suspected as Q^^^n of 
her husband's assassui. It was accordingly arranged 
that Bothwell should fall upon her as she was riding from Stirling 
to Edinburgh and make a show of forcing her to become his wife. 
But the pretence was too transparent to deceive any one. All Scot- 
land rose in revolt against th,e queen and her ruffianly husband. 
Even the nobles who had helped BothweU were delig-hted to have 
an excuse in his crime for attacking the royal power. It was to no 
purpose that Maiy, for the first and last time in her life, showed 
a disposition to abandon her religion rather than give up the fierce 
noble who had won her heart. She attended Protestant sermons, 
and sought to put herseK at the head of the Protestant party. 
But the very soldiers she called upon to protect her from the rebels 
I'efused to strike a blow in her favour. At Carherry HiU, outside 
Edinburgh, her partisans deserted her, and she was taken prisoner 
by the rebel lords. Bothwell fled from Scotland, and died a few 
years later. Mary was deprived of her throne, and her infant 
son proclaimed James vi. Moray and the Protestant exiles 
returned and assumed the government in his name. 

25. Eor nearly a year the deposed queen was kept a captive in 
the island-castle of Lochleven in Kinross-shire. But the victorious 
nobles soon began to quarrel among themselves, and jyjg^pyjg 

in 1568 the great Clydesdale house of Hamilton raised flight to 
a revolt in her favour. Mary escaped from Lochleven, England, 
and was once more at the head of an army. On May 13, 
however, she was defeated by Moray at Langside, near Grlasgow. 
Unable to bear up any longer against her enemies in Scotland, 
Mary took the bold step of throwing herself upon the mercy 
of EKzabeth. She rode from the field of Langside to the Solway, 
crossed its waters in a fishing-boat, and landed in England, im- 
ploring her cousin's protection. From this moment a new stage in 
their rivalry began. The fugitive was henceforth to be a greater 
source of trouble to Elizabeth than ever she had been when 
mounted on the thrones of France and Scotland. 

26. Elizabeth was immensely embarrassed by Mary's appeal. 
She dared not offend her allies, the Scottish Protestants, by 
restoring the exiled queen, and she was equally afraid to let her' 
escape to France, where her claims on England might once more 



384 ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS [1568- 

be taken up. Yet she was almost equally alarmed at the pros- 
pect of keeping- Mary in England, where she would be at hand 
to be the centre of every CathoKc conspiracy, and 

Mapysim- mio-ht at any moment be raised from her prison to 
ppisonment. ° '' i • j -m. 

the throne. Under such cu-cumstances Euzabeth found 

it easy to adopt the policy of hesitation and delay on which she 
was always willing to fall back. Her strongest reason for not 
helping Mary was the fatal business of the murder of Darnley. 
Accordingly, she announced that before taking any decided steps 
in the matter she must investigate the charges brought against 
the queen of Scots, and for that purpose she appointed a com- 
mission, at the head of which was the duke of Norfolk. Moray 
and the Protestant lords laid before this body all the evidence 
they could find as to Mary's guilt. Chief amongst it was a series 
of letters and love-poems, called the Cashet Letters, because it was 
said that they had been found in a casket at Carberry Hill, at the 
time immediately before Mary's deposition. If gepuine, the casket 
letters were convincing proofs of Mary's guilt, but her friends 
have always declared them to have been forged by Moray and his 
friends. Anyhow, the commissioners never came to any decision 
in the matter. Elizabeth preferred that Mary should be neither 
condemned nor acquitted, but rather remain in captivity under 
a cloud, so that she mig"ht be used or condemned accordingly as 
future events might determine. Mary was therefore retained in 
honourable imprisonment in England, while Moray and the Scots 
lords went back home, secure of Elizabeth's support. 

27. Eighteen years of plots and rebeUions were Elizabeth's 
punishment for lacking courage to take a decided course. The 
The revolt ^^xt year (1569) the Catholics of the north rose in 
of the revolt under the leadership of the two chief repre- 

nopthern sentatives of the ancient noble houses that had so 
long been their natural leaders. These were Thomas 
Percy, earl of Northumberland, and Charles Neville, earl of 
Westmorland. It was another Pilgrimage of Grace, and showed 
that the north country was still strongly in favour of the old 
religion. An unsuccessful effort was made to free the queen of 
Scots, which was defeated by Mary being moved to the midlands 
far beyond the northerners' reach. Then the earl of Sussex put 
down the insurrection, and soon drove the two earls to find a refuge 
in exile. The collapse of the rebellion immensely strengthened 
Elizabeth's position. For the rest of her reign none of her enemies 
succeeded in exciting an open rising. 



-IS7I-] ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 385 

28. Other resources were still, however, open to the foes of 

Elizabeth. In 1570 the regent Moray was assassinated in Scotland, 

and thi-ee years of civil war and confusion ensued. _. , „ _ 
rrn Ti ji- 1 i T T -^.r . T The bull of 

Ihese did nothing, however, to help Mary s cause, and excom- 

in 1573 another strong regent was found in the earl of munication, 
Morton, who successfully upheld Protestant ascendancy 
and good order in the name of the little James vi. Of more value 
to Mary than her brother's death was the intervention of the pope 
in her favour. The pope was now Pius v., an old Inquisitor, and 
a bitter, if high-minded, zealot for the Counter-E/eformation. In 
February, 1570, Pius issued a bull excommunicating Elizabeth 
and deposing her from the throne. Parliament answered him by 
passing acts that made it treason to introduce papal bulls into the 
country or to become a convert to the Roman Catholic faith. 
Henceforward there was, as long as Elizabeth lived, war to the 
knife l^etween Eng-land and Rome. It was almost impossible for 
an Englishman to remain a good Catholic and a faithful subject 
of Queen Elizabeth, and a series of Catholic plots to depose Eliza- 
beth and put Mary in her place, showed the result of the pope's 
action on the minds of the more zealous of his disciples. 

29. In 1571 a Florentine banker named Ridolfi, who had long 
resided in England, and was a secret agent of the pope and Philip 
of Spain, persuaded the duke of l^orf oik to put himself 

at the head of a rebellion to release Mary Stewart and vjjljt 1571 
restore Catholicism. Norfolk, a son of the poet earl 
of Surrey, was the only duke left in England, and, though he had 
always conformed to Elizabeth's Church, he was very lukewarm 
in his support of the Reformation, and was indignant that a man 
of his high rank should have so little power at court. He was 
tempted by the proposal that he should be married to Mary, who 
might then be restored to the Scottish throne and recognized as 
Elizabeth's successor. After trying for a time to reconcile loyalty 
to Elizabeth with the acceptance of this glittering prospect, the 
duke was talked over by Ridolfi into overt treason. But Cecil and 
his spies had discovered all about the plot, and in 1572 Norfolk 
was convicted of treason and executed. For the next few years 
England enjoyed comparative peace. Despite the papal excom- 
munication, Elizabeth seemed stronger than ever. 

30. France, distracted by civil war, had now dropped into a 
secondary position in politics. In 1572 Protestant Europe was 
horrified by the cold-blooded massacre of the French Protestants 
on St. Bartholomew's day, at the instigation of Charles ix. This 

2c 



386 ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS [1572. 

was but an isolated act of cruel policy, and tlie French monarchy, 
floating" helplessly between the Catholic and' Protestant parties, 
was powerless to hurt England. Philip of Spain, as 
•and the ' "^^^ avowed leader of Catholicism, was gradually be- 

revolt of coming the supporter of the English Catholics and 
the Nether- ^-j^^ chief hope of the captive queen of Scots. But 
Philip's attention was much taken up with other 
m.atters, and he was still so jealous of France that he tried to 
keep on good terms with England. Philip had had to contend 
since 1572 with a formidable revolt in the ^Netherlands, where 
Ms attempts to make himself a despot and to crush out Pro- 
testantism had completely failed. For five years his ruthless 
general Alva had ruled the seventeen provinces qf the Spanish 
Netherlands with an iron hand. But it was impossible by persecu- 
'tdon to change the faith of a whole nation, and* the only result 
^of Alva's repression was that Holland and Zealand, the most 
Protestant and energetic of the provinces, rose in revolt, and 
heroically defied the whole resources of the Spanish monarchy. 
^ot only did Philip fail to put down the Hollanders; in 1576 
all the other provinces followed their example, and united in the 
Pacification of Ghent, by which the Catholic and Protestant dis- 
ta-icts alike agreed to protect their ancient political liberties from 
Philip. This comprehensive union did not last long, and Philip's 
illegitimate brother, Don John of Austria, who was now governor 
of the iN'etherlands, soon persuaded some of the southern provinces, 
which were mostly Catholic, to recognize Philip's rule on condition 
that he gave up his attacks on their political liberties. Thereupon 
the seven northern provinces, headed by Holland, formed in 1579 
the union of Utrecht, by which they became a federal Calvinistic 
commonwealth under William, prince of Orang-e, as their stadt- 
holder, or governor. Such was the origin of the Dutch Republic 
of the Seven Provinces of the United Netherlands. As England 
sympathized strongly with the rebels, there was fresh reason for 
ill-will between Elizabeth and Philip. But neither dared attack 
the other yet. 

31. Elizabeth found compensation for these troubles in the 
inoreasing loyalty of her subjects, and their increasing willingness 
^j^g to accept her ecclesiastical policy. So feeble was th^ 

seminapy position of CathoKcism in England that the leaders 
priests. of -^^^Q Church took the alarm, and made a determined 

effort to rekindle the zeal of the English Romanists. A 
Lancashire priest named William Allen, who had forsaken his 



1572.] ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 387 

country rather than recognize the royal supremacy, set up at 
Doiiai, within Philiij's Netherlandish dominions, a college or 
seminary, to train young Englishmen for the priesthood, that they 
might return to their homes as missionaries of the old faith. The 




Emery Walker sc. 



college at Douai, soon transferred to Reims, in French territory, 
became very flourishing, and sent forth a stream of missionary 
clergy to England, where their energy gave new life to the 
Catholic cause. Up to this time many Roman Catholics had 
been content to attend the services of their parish churches, and 



388 ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS [1577- 

to take little part in politics. The seTYiinary priests, as the 
pupils of the college were called, soon put an end to such laxity, 
and excited the alarm of the government. The severe laws passed 
in a panic in 1571 were employed against them, and in 1577 
Cuthhert Mayne, executed at Launceston for denying the royal 
supremacy and having a papal bull in his possession, was the 
first Catholic martyr which Douai sent forth. 

32. Three years later even greater fear was excited among 
the Protestants hy the first appearance of the Jesuits in England 
Th Je 't (1580). Their leaders were Robert Parsons, a subtle 
invasion, and dexterous intriguer, and Edmund Campion, a 
1580. high-souled enthusiast, who was careless about politics, 
and thought only of winning souls over to his Church. In great 
alarm fresh laws were passed against popish recusants, and a keen 
search made for the Jesuits, who wandered in disguise throughout 
the land, stirring up the zeal of their partisans. Parsons escaped 
to the continent in safety, but Campion was captured. He could 
not be proved to be disloyal to Elizabeth, and was cruelly tortured 
in the hope of extracting some sort of confession from him. In 
due course he was convicted and hung as a traitor at Tyburn. He 
was as ip.uch a martyr as any of the Protestants who suffered under 
Mary, During the rest of Elizabeth's reign scores of Catholic 
priests and laymen incurred the fate of Mayne and Campion. 

33. The sang'uinary persecution of the missionaries had a sort 
of justification in the fact that many of them, like Parsons, were 
The B d of ^^^^P®*! ^® ^^® -^P^ ^ treason. Plot after plot was 
Association, framed to compass Elizabeth's death and bring- Mary 
l^S"*' to the throne. Philip of Spain gave help to the 
conspirators, and in 1584, on the failure of a scheme to murder 
Elizabeth, the Spanish ambassador was ordered to quit London. 
Burghley and Walsing-ham drew up a document called the Bond of 
Association, which all classes of Eng-lishmen eagerly signed. The 
members of the bond pledged themselves to defend EKzabeth 
against her enemies, and bound themselves, in the event of her 
murder, to put to death any person on whose behalf the deed was 
committed. This meant that if Elizabeth were slain, the queen 
of Scots would be at once executed. In 1585 parliament legalised 
the association and passed fresh laws against the Catholics. It 
banished all Jesuits and seminary priests, and made the return of 
any one of them an act of treason. 

34. In 1586 a new plot was formed to murder Elizabeth. Its 
instigator was the seminary priest, John Ballard, and its instrument 



-1587.] ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 389 

a foolish and vain young Catholic gentleman, named Anthony 
Babington. Babing-ton was so proud of his boldness that he 
rashly boasted of what he was going to do, and soon 
enabled Walsing-ham's spies to find out all about the Babington 
conspiracy. At last Walsing'ham got into his hands conspiracy, 
letters of Mary written to Babing'ton, in which she ^°^°' 
expressed her approval of the attempt to murder Elizabeth. Then 
he fell on Babington, and put him and his accomplices to death. 

35. The chief importance of -the Babington conspiracy is that it 
supplied Walsingham with evidence of Mary's complicity in an 
assassination plot, and frightened Elizabeth, who had ^ 
hitherto been afraid to proceed to extremities against of Mary 
Mary, into allowing the queen of Scots to be tried for Queen of 
treason. A court for the trial of Mary was held at ^' 

Fotheringhay Castle, near Peterborough. Mary refused to answer 
before the court on the ground that as a crowned queen she was no 
subject of Elizabeth, and could not, therefore, commit treason 
against her. ISTevertheless, she was, in October, 1586, sentenced to 
the block as a traitor, though Elizabeth long delayed the execution 
of the sentence. Parliament urged her in strong terms to put Mary 
to death at once, but Elizabeth delayed until February, 1587, before 
she would allow anytliing to be done. Even after signing the order 
for her rival's death, she would not allow it to be sent down to 
Fotheringhay, till at last the council, which fully shared the 
opinions of parliament, ordered Davison, the secretary of state, to 
despatch the warrant. On February 8, 1587, Mary was beheaded in 
the great hall of Fotheringhay Castle, meeting her end with rare 
courage and dignity. Elizabeth loudly protested that the deed was 
not of her ordering, and ruined the unlucky Davison for breaking 
her commands. This she did partly to evade responsibility, and 
partly so as to give some specious excuse to her ally, James vi., for 
his mother's execution. But Elizabeth was the chief gainer by her 
rival's death. There was no longer any use in mui-dering the queen 
of England when her successor would be the Protestant king of Scots. 
The worst of Elizabeth's troubles was over after the tragic fate 
of Mary Queen of Scots. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE LATTER YEARS OF THE REIGN OF 
ELIZABETH (1587-1603) 

Chief Dates : 

1588. Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 

1591. The fight of the Revenge. 

1596. The capture of Cadiz. 

1597' First Monopolies contest. 

1598. The Irish rebellion. 

1601. Second Monopolies contest. 

1603. Death of Elizabeth. 

1. DuniNG the years of Mary's imprisonment Engiand and Spain 
were slowly drifting into war. Philip was the instigator of 

every plot for the release of the captive queen, and 
relations England retaliated "by giving as muclL help to the 
between Netherlandish rebels as Elizabeth would allow. More- 

England over, Philip sent, as we shall see, troops and priests to 

Ireland to stir np the Irish against England and Pro- 
testantism, while he kept up active intrigues in Scotland, and strove, 
though but to little purpose, to persuade James vi., who was now 
growing up to manhood, to take up the Catholic cause, and make 
efforts on behalf of his mother, There was even more friction 
between England and Spain by sea than by land, and each power had 
done so much harm to the other that in any ordinary times ox3en 
war would certainly have ensued between them. Yet after nearly 
twenty years of ceaseless friction nominal peace still prevailed. 
This was partly due to the fact that both Elizabeth and Philip were 
somewhat irresolute in temperament and too timid to run the 
risks which war involved. But the chief reason of the hesitation 
of Philip was the general political condition of Eui-ope. Though 
nearly thirty years had elapsed since the outbreak of a national 
war like those which had been waged before 1559, yet the 
old jealousy between Erance and Spain was by no means dead. 
Philip was still afraid that if he attacked England, Erance would 
take advantage of his plight and fall upon him with all her mig*ht. 
390 



iS8i.] LATTER YEARS OF REIGN OF ELIZABETH 391 

Thus it was that, thoug-L. as the champion of Catholicism he would 
have dearly loved to conquer England, as the cliief monarch of 
Europe he was so conscious of the risk to his authority that a fight 
with Elizabeth impKed, that he still preferred to let things drifts, 
and still professed to value English friendship after the feeling 
between the two countries had become very bitter. 

2. Philip had a special motive for hesitation in the revolt of the 
Netherlands. Thanks to Don John of Austria, he was making slow 
but steady progress in winning back his position over 

the southern and central provinces, though the north p"^^°^ 
still defied his efforts. Don John of Austria soon died, interven- 
but a worthy successor to him was found in Alexander tion in the 
Farnese, duke of Parma, one of the best generals of jands^' 
that age. His advance soon frightened both Elizabeth 
and Henry iii. of France, and dread of the imminent triumph of 
Spain brought about for the moment that alliance between England 
and France which Pliilip dreaded more than anything else. It was 
proposed in 1581 to cement this friendship by a marriage between 
Elizabeth and Francis, duke of Anjou, the younger brother of 
Henry iii., who in 1574 had succeeded his brother Charles ix. as 
king of France. The scheme was the more formidable to Philip 
since it was hoped that Anjou would be accepted by both the 
Protestant and Catholic Netherlanders as their ruler. Thus the 
result of the Anglo-French alliance was to be the estabKshment of 
a French prince on the ruins of the Spanish power in the Low 
Countries. It was as severe a blow as could be directed ag*ainst 
Philip II. 

3. There had been constant talk of the marriage of Elizabeth 
ever since her accession. Her people, anxious that she should have 
a direct heir, had long urged her to choose a husband, ,p, ^ . 
and Elizabeth had so far gratified them that she marriage 
entered into numerous negotiations with a view to her scheme, 
marriage, though she had made up her mind never to 

share her throne with a husband. ISTow, when the queen was nearly 
fifty years of age, the most serious of her marriage projects was 
started. Anjou, an ugly, contemptible fellow, more than twenty 
years her junior, came to England, and Elizabeth received him as 
her future husband. Before long, however, realizing the folly of 
her position, she was glad to send off Anjou to the !N^etlierlands, 
and showed an unwonted liberality in supplying him with men and 
money for carrying out his projects. Anjou's incompetence, how- 
ever, soon wrecked aU the fine schemes formed by England and 



392 LATTER YEARS OF REIGN OF ELIZABETH [1584- 

France to lay low tlie power of PMlip. In a short time lie was 
driven away by tlie Netherlanders themselves, and went back to 
Fraroe, where he soon died. Long- before this, the fantastic notion 
of wedding him to Elizabeth had been quite forgotten. 

4. The chief importance of the Anjou marriage scheme was 
that, it induced Elizabeth to take an active part in supporting the 
T . ..^ . revolted ISTetherlanders against the king of . Spain, 
the Nether- After Anjou' s failure, Parma renewed his advance, 
lands, 1 586. and soon the provinces were reduced to the greatest 
straits. In 1584 their heroic leader, William of Orange, was 
murdered by a Catholic fanatic. It was the same year in which 
Elizabeth expelled the Spanish ambassador for complicity in an 
assassination plot. In 1585 Parma captured Antwerp, and thus 
broke the back of the resistance of the southern provinces. In 
their despair the !N'etherlanders offered to make Elizabeth their 
ruler if she would protect them from Philip's assaults. Too 
prudent to accept this sovereignty, Elizabeth sent an army to help 
them, at the head of which she placed her favourite, the earl of 
Leicester. But Leicester was almost as incompetent as Anjou, and 
his arrival brought little relief. The most famous episode in his 
campaign was a fight against the Spaniards near Zutphen, in 
which his accomplished nephew, Sir Philip Sidney, the pattern 
Elizabethan gentleman, poet, romance-writer, courtier, and soldier, 
received his death-wound. Before the end of 1586 Leicester 
quarrelled with the Dutch and went back to England. Then 
came the Babington conspiracy and the execution of Mary Queen 
of Scots. At last even the sluggish Philip felt that the cup of 
English offences was full to the brim, and prepared to wreak a 
signal vengeance upon the English heretics. 

5. A generation of conflict between Englishmen and Spaniards 
on the ocean made the long-delayed rupture more complete and 

more bitter. The discovery of America by Columbus 
th ^T^ A ^^^^ opened up for Spain a mighty empire in Southern 

and Central America, and had forced a nation of 
soldiers and priests to produce, almost in its own despite, navi- 
gators, colonisers, and traders. The commercial position of Spain 
was made much stronger when, in 1580, Philip conquered Portugal 
and its colonies, and so extended his power to Brazil and over thfe 
remnants of the great Eastern Empire which the Portuguese had 
set up, following on the tracks of Yasco da Gama, who had first dis- 
covered the sea-road to India and the East. At first the Spaniards 
and Portuguese had no rivals in their quest of wealth, conquest, 



-1586.] LATTER YEARS OF REIGN OF ELIZABETH 393 

and adventure in strang-e lands. Least of all was competition to be 
expected from England, whose people, up to the middle of the 
sixteenth century, were distinguished neither for their seamanship, 
commerce, nor love of adventure. Englishmen remained what they 
had been in the. Middle Ages, an easy-going, stay-at-home people, 
loving hard fighting and good living, but so indifferent to trade 
and money-making, that they were still content that the larger 
share of the external trade of their island should remain in the 
hands of foreigners. 

6. Signs of a new spirit of activity were dimly discernible 
in early Tudor times. The marvellous discoveries of Columbus 
and Yasco da Gama stirred the sluggish fancy of 

Henry vii., who sent John Cabot, a Yenetian settled ginnings 
in Bristol, on a voyage to America, which resulted of English 
in the discovery of the coast of Labrador. Notliing n^a^^'itime 
practical came of this, however, until the private 
enterprise of the merchants of Bristol, the adopted home of Cabot, 
sent out expeditions of discovery that won for England a small 
share in the Newfoundland fisheries and the trade with West 
Africa. Plymouth adventurers, conspicuous among whom was 
William Hawkins, opened out commerce between England and 
South America. In London, the Confipany of Merchant Adven- 
turers, which, as the chief society of English traders, had long 
competed for the Baltic and Scandinavian markets with the 
German merchants of the Steelyard, showed, under the guidance of 
Sebastian Cabot, the son of the discoverer of Labrador, an enterprise 
foreign to earlier generations. In 1553, at Cabot's chancellor's 
suggestion, the first native English voyage of dis- voyage, 
covery was iQidertaken by Sir Hugh Willoughby and 1553. 
his pilot, Richard Chancellor, who strove to open up new trading 
centres in northern and eastern lands, and to discover, if possible, 
a north-east passage to China through the Arctic seas. HI luck 
attended this pioneer expedition, and only Chancellor with a few 
of the ships made any discovery of importance. He found his way 
into the White Sea, and opened up trading relations with Russia 
of such importance that a Muscovy or Russia Company was started 
to work it. 

7. Though Chancellor's voyage was undertaken under Mary, 
the new impulse which drove Englislimen to adventure and dis- 
covery was the direct result of the great stirring of men's minds 
that followed the Reformation. Though no theologians, and 
greedy, cruel, and reckless in their lives, most of the English 



394 LATTER YEARS OF REIGN OF ELIZABETH [1562- 

seamen were sound Protestants and great haters of the pope. 
Already in Mary's reign some of the Protestant refugees took to 
ppotes- ^^® ^^^ ^^^ robbed their Catholic feUow-conntrynien 

tantismand with special zest, A few years later the struggling 
maritime Protestants of France and the Netherlands followed 
their example, and the water-heggars, as the Calvinist 
sliipmen of Holland and Zealand were called, found an easy 
prey in the riclily freighted galleons of Spain. Thus the Pro- 
testant sailors of England and Holland alike found that to plunder 
Spaniards was a shorter way to get rich than to trade honestly 
on their own account. Heligious zeal made it a pious work to 
despoil. the papist subjects of Philip 11. Moreover, the Spaniards 
kept their American colonies under strict control, and claimed 
an absolute monopoly of trade with them. The dearness which 
followed monopoly made the Spanish colonists themselves welcome 
any merchants daring enough to disreg*ard the navigation laws 
and sell them the goods of which they had urgent need. Hence 
smug-gling commodities into Spanish colonies became another way 
of making money easily. The impulse to adventure had begun. 

8. The special want of the Spaniards in America was that of 
labourers to work their mines and till their plantations. They 
„ , . were too few and too proud to work themselves in a 

and the tropical climate, and the native Americans of the 

slave-trade, "West India islands died off like flies when forced to 
labour for their new masters. John Hawkins, son of 
the William Hawkins of the reign of Henry viii., made voyages 
in his father's track, and soon learnt that an easy way to win riches 
was to kidnap or buy shiploads of strong and hardy negroes in 
West Africa, and sell them to the Spaniards in America and the 
"West Indies. In 1562 and in 1564 Hawkins made two slaving 
voyages to the Gruinea coast, and sold his human cargo to such 
profit in Hispaniola and Mexico that he came home a wealthy and 
a famous man. Philip 11. was much incensed at the daring heretic. 
When, in 1567, Hawkins attempted a third voyage on a larger 
scale, the Spanish officials would not allow him to transact business. 
Hawkins tried to force his wares upon the colonists, but was en- 
trapped into the narrow harbour of Vera Cruz in Mexico, and 
overborne by numbers. He lost most of his ships and profits, but 
returned safely to England, and showed the way to other adven- 
turers. He was the founder of the negro slave-trade which made 
possible the colonization of tropical America by a planter aristo- 
cracy cultivating its lands by black labour, and which for more 



-1567.] LATTER YEARS OF REIGN OF ELIZABETH 395 



=?;;;;:;> ^, 




396 LATTER YEARS OF REIGN OF ELIZABETH [1577- 

tliaii two liimdred years was to l^e a source of immense gain to 
English, mercliants. ]S5"eit]ier English nor Spaniards had the least 
care of the ornelty and wickedness of this traffic in human flesh. 

9. Hawkins was a mere man of business, thoug'h terribly 
efficient at his work. His example was soon followed by others, 

in some of whom his greedy commercial spirit was in 
voyage somewise ennobled by romantic love of adventure and 

round the a sort of crusading enthusiasm against the Spanish 
1577-1580 papists. Conspicuous among the higher sort of ex- 
plorers was Martin Erobisher, a Torkshireman who 
made three voyages to the frozen coasts of Labrador in the hope 
of finding a north-west passage to China, and Francis Drake, a. 
Devonshire man and a kinsman of Hawkins, who, after having on 
a voyage to Panama climbed a hill from which he could look down 
on the Pacific, formed a resolution to sail an English ship upon 
that strange ocean which had hitherto been navigated by the 
Spaniards alone. With this object Drake set forth in 1577 with 
a fleet of five small vessels, hoping to redeem his vow. He was 
away from Eng-land for three years, and met with countless perils 
from storms, mutinies, and the hostility of the Spaniards. He lost 
all his ships save his own vessel, the Pelican, which he rechristened 
the Golden Hind. He crossed the South Atlantic, sailed through 
the dangerous straits of Magellan to the open Pacific, where he 
plundered the Spaniards at his will, and at last, loaded with 
precious booty, sailed westwards over the Indian Ocean, and safely 
got home in 1580 by way of the Cape of Good Hope, being the first 
captain who had sailed round the world and returned alive to port. 
His success made him the hero of the moment, and Elizabeth, 
visiting the Golden Hind as it lay in the Thames at Deptford, 
dubbed him a knight on his own quarter-deck. 

10. The Spaniards rightly denounced Drake as a pirate, and 
demanded his surrender and the restitution of the property he had 

stolen. It was the time of the Jesuit invasion and 
befwe'en *^ the Anjou marriage scheme, and EKzabeth was of no 
England mind to give up the adventurer to his enemies. She 

and Spain, p^^^ ^ff the Spaniards with fair words, and sncouraged 

Drake as much as she could. ITew sources of offence 
now arose daily between the two countries. After the expulsion of 
the Spanish ambassador in 1584, Philip retaliated by confiscating 
all English ships and property found in his dominions. Drak« 
and Erobisher were for the first time commissioned in the queen's 
service to make reprisals on Spanish ports. In 1585 they plundered 



-1588.] LATTER YEARS OF REIGN OF ELIZABETH 397 

Vigo, and led a fresh expedition to the West Indies. In 1587 
the execution of Mary Queen of Scots at length goaded Spain 
into open war, and in great indignation Philip prepared a fleet 
that would avenge Eng-lish insults to his coasts and his religion 
by pouring an army into their island. When his plans were still 
but Lalf ready, Drake sailed into Cadiz harbour and sank or burnt 
his ships. Philip was more than ever bent upon revenge, and 
fitted out another fleet which was to invade England in 1588. 

11. Philip's plan was to send his fleet to Flanders, whence it 
was to carry the duke of Parma's army over the narrow seas to 
England. It was hoped that on the landing of the „, . . , 
Spaniards the English Catholics would gladly join plans for 
with them in throwing off the yoke of the heretic invading 
queen, and William AHen, now made a cardinal, wrote England, 
an exhortation to the English to accept Philip as the executor of 
Pius v.'s sentence of deposition. Philip's hands were set free by 
the death of Mary, whom he had always suspected by reason of her 
French connections. He claimed the English tlu^one himself, as a 
nearer descendant of John of G-aunt than the Tudors. 

12. England had no regular troops to oppose the Spanish 
veterans, and her best chance was to meet her enemies at sea, where 
the English had so often beaten the Spaniards in recent ^^^^ s Danish 
years that they had no great reason to fear them now. Armada, 
Since Henry viii.'s time the royal navy of Engiand 1588. 

had been an efficient and growing force, and Hawkins, of late 
years Treasurer to the Navy, had built a large number of new 
ships, on better lines than any of the Spanish vessels. Lying 
lower in the water than the Spaniards, and with fewer " castles," or 
decks, piled up liigh fore and aft, the English vessels looked smaller 
than the Spanish, even when they were much of the same size. But 
they were easier to manage, more seaworthy, quicker, and better 
equipped than those of the enemy. Moreover, they were built to 
fight, and were not, like many of the Spaniards, mere transports 
crowded with soldiers, and iU foujid for a long voyage. Even the 
armed merchantmen which swelled the scanty numbers of the royal 
vessels were trained by a long career of privateering or piracy, and 
the crews, accustomed to the boisterous seas of the Atlantic fisliing- 
grounds, were much better sailors than their opponents. Both 
fleets alike were commanded by great noblemen, the Spaniards by 
the duke of Medina Sidonia, a young grandee with no great know- 
ledge of the sea, and the English by Lord Howard of Eflingham, 
a cousin of the ISTorfolk beheaded in 1572, However, wliile the 



398 LATTER YEARS OF REIGN OF ELIZABETH [1588- 



subordinate commanders on the Spanish, side were also noble- 
men whose experience was on land and whose skill that of the 
soldier, Lord Howard's immediate subordinates were practical 
seamen, who had ah'eady had long acquaintance with Spanish war- 
fare. Sir Francis Drake was second and John Hawkins third in 
command, while the largest ship in the fleet had as its captain 
Martin Frobisher, who, with Hawkins, was knighted during the 
struggle. A land army was hastily levied, the command over 
which Elizabeth insisted on giving to Leicester, whose last months 

of life were devoted to 



this supreme service to his 
mistress. Despite the 
efforts of Allen, Catholics 
joined with Protestants in 
resisting the invaders. It 
was no longer a war of 
religions, but a struggle 
between two nations. 

13. The Spaniards were 
impressed by the magni- 
tude of PhiKp's prepara- 
tions, and proudly styled 
their fleet the Invincible Ar- 
tnada. Misfortune dogged 
its path from the begin- 
ning. Starting in May 
from Lisbon, it was driven 
back by rough weather and 
insufficient equipment into 
the ports of northern 
Spain, whence it did not 
finally sail until July. On 
July 19 the Armada' en- 
tered the Channel, and 
was rapidly blown by a favourable south-wester towards the straits 
The Armada ^^ Dover. The English admiral, who had waited for 
in the it in Plymouth Sound, allowed the enemy to pass 

Channel. jjj^g anchorage, whereupon he sailed out and closely 
hung upon the Spaniards' rear. A running fight ensued for 
the best part of a week. The English had the advantage 
of attacking on the windward side, and their greater power of 
sailing close to the wind enabled them to escape action at neer 




Emery Walker sc. 
THE COURSE OF THE SPANISH ARMADA. 



-1589.J LATTER YEARS OF REIGN OF ELIZABETH 399 

quarters, wliicli «vas wliat the Spaniards wanted. Ship after 
ship of the Armada was cut off and captured by the English. 
The long- artillery fight used up the ammunition of iDoth fleets. 
The English, however, could get fresh supplies from the shore, 
while the Spaniards had no such resource open to them. From 
the very beginning the Spaniards had the worst of the encounter, 
and at last cast anchor in Calais roads, fully conscious of failure. 

14. Lord Howard now began to adopt bolder tactics. He drove 
the enemy from their anchorage by sending fireships among them, 
which forced them to cut their cables to avoid being ^^ 
bujL-nt to pieces. Then, on July 29, the English bore battle off 
down on the Spaniards off Gravelines, where the Gravelines. 
decisive battle was waged for nine hours without intermission. 
The Spaniards were likely to do better in a regular engagement 
than in the preliminary skirmishing. They now fought with 
great courage, and though beaten in the end, were able to retreat in 
good order. But as the wind still blew from the south, Sidonia's 
only way of retreat was to sail northwards, and finally make his 
way home by doubling the north of Scotland. High gales proved 
fatal to many of the war-worn and storm-tried ships, and many 
wrecks strewed the western coasts of Scotland and Ireland. It 
showed rare tenacity among the Spaniards that Sidonia was able to 
bring back nearly half his fleet to Spain. 

15. Thus the attack on England utterly failed. The defeat 

of the Armada left England free to settle her own destinies for 

herself, and saved English Protestantism. By making _ 

. JO Results 

England a great naval power, it prepared the way for of the 

our commerce and colonies. It made easy the union Protestant 

with Scotland and the conquest of Ireland, which ^^^^^^^' 

were soon to come. !N'or were its effects limited to England- It 

inflicted the greatest check ever encountered on the triumphant 

iBorces of the CathoKc reaction. It secured the freedom of the 

Seven United Provinces, which, like the fate of England, had 

hitherto been trembling in the balance. It thus limited the 

Spanish Netherlands to the Catholic provinces of the south. 

16. Even in France the results of the Protestant victory were 
strongly felt. There the strife between Calvinists and Catholics 
had just reached its crisis. The weak Henry iii, had jjgjj_„ jy 
been repudiated by the extreme Catholics, who looked king of 
upon Philip of Spain as their leader, and hoped with France, 
his help to make France as strenuous in its devotion 

to the old faith as was Spain itself. Henry was therefore forced 



400 LATTER YEARS OF REIGN OF ELIZABETH [1589- 

to g-o over to the Protestants, and was soon afterwards murdered 
by a Catkolic zealot. His death, made his distant cousin, Henry, 
duke of bourbon and king* of ISTavarre, Henry iv. of France, Thus 
the house of Yalois, which had reigned in France since 1328, gave 
place to the lnouse of Bourhon, which was henceforth to rule 
France as long as France was to be governed by kings. Henry rV., 
though the Protestant leader, was no bigot, but a clear-headed, 
selfish, and capable politician, who looked on reUgion much in the 
same way as Elizabeth did. He saw that as a Protestant he 
had n.0 chance of ruling France, so he turned Catholic, and soon 
the French, weary of religious warfare, rallied round him. His 
conversion meant that France remained a Catholic country, but it 
was a liberal, tolerant Catholicism, very different from the bigoted 
isuth of Spain. Henry gave the Protestants toleration by the 
edict of Nantes, showed that, like Elizabeth, he wished to be king 
over all his people, restored the declining fortunes of France, 
and gradually won back for it the first place in Europe. With 
this object he formed a close alliance with the English queen 
against Spain, and for ten more years both powers were at war 
against Philip. In 1598 Philip made peace with France, and died 
shortly afterwards. With him ended the greatness of Spain. 

17. England and Spain continued fighting until after the 
death of Elizabeth. The main struggle was still at sea, where the 
The wap efforts of England were not so successful as they had 
with Spain, been earlier. Thus, in 1589, Drake failed in an attack 
1589-1603. Qj^ Lisbon; and in 1591 an expedition sent to the 
Azores under Lord Thomas Howard was compelled to retreat 
before a stronger Spanish fleet. One of Howard's ships, the 
_, „ . , . Revenge, commanded by Sir Richard Grrenville, was 
of the so slow in withdrawing' that it was cut off from its 
"Revenge," fellows by the Spanish fleet. Thereupon G-renville 

formed the rash resolve to cut his way through the 
whole of the enemies' squadron. He was soon assailed on every side, 
and, mortally wounded after a long resistance, was forced to sur- 
render. He showed such heroism that the fight of the Revenge was 
long remembered among the most brilliant deeds of English seamen. 

18. In 1595 Drake and Hawkins led a last expedition to the 
West Indies. The Spaniards were now used to the English way 
The capture ^^ fighting, and better prepared to meet it. Accord- 
of Cadiz, ingly the fleet captured no treasure and won few 

successes. Both Drake and Hawkins died at sea, and 
altogether the voyage was a failure. Next year Philip fitted out 



-1598.] LATTER YEARS OF REIGN OF ELIZABETH 4OI 

a new Armada at Cadiz, wliereupon Lord Howard of Efliiig-liam 
and E-obert Devereux, earl of Essex, sailed to the Spanisli port, 
destroyed the ships in harbour after a fietce fig-ht, and took Cadiz 
itself bj storm. This rude lesson kept the Spaniards quiet for some 
years, and, after Philip 11. 's death in 1598, the war languishecJ for 
the rest of the reign. 

19. The last years of Elizabeth's reign saw the first attempts 
to found English colonies in America. As early as 1583, Sir 
Humphrey Grilbert strove to plant an English 
settlement on the dreary coast of Newfoundland, but attempts 
failed utterly, and perished at sea on his way home, at English 
His haie-brother. Sir Walter Raleigh, the most colonies, 
brilliant and many-sided of the Devonshire heroes of the reign, 
took up Grilbert's ideas, and between 1585 and 1590 made three 
attempts to set up an English colony in a part of the mainland 
of iN^orth America, which he called Virginia, in honour of the 
virgin queen. But Raleigh was too busy pushing his fortunes 
at court to go himself to Virginia, and, without his guidance, the 
efcort came to nothing. When the queen died there was not a 
single English settlement on the American continent. 

20. Englishmen who wished to find a new home beyond sea 
obtained what they sought in Ireland rather than over the Atlantic. 
We have seen how, under Henry viii., the first Iceland 
English king of Ireland, vigorous efforts had been under 
made to make the rule of the English monarchs a' "'^^'y ^ u<ioP- 
reality, and the limited amount of success that had attended 
them. They were continued under his two daughters, and the 
first great extension of the English power occurred under Mary, 
when the districts called Leix and Offaly, hitherto governed by 
Irish clan chieftains, were conquered by the queen's deputy, or 
governor, the earl of Sussex, and were made, as the phrase went, 
shire-ground. By that it was meant that, as in Wales, the setting 
up of English law followed the establishment of new counties. 
The newly conquered Irish districts were called King's County and 
Queen's County, and their county towns Philipstown and Marij- 
horoiigh, in honour of Philip and Mary. This was the last advance 
of the English power in Ireland during the days when English 
and Irish, though divided by race and language, stiU agreed about 
religion. 

21. Elizabeth extended to Ireland her English ecclesiastical 
poKcy, though there were few Protestants there, either among the 
native Irish or the Norman lords. She was so thrifty, and had so 

2d 



402 LATTER YEARS OF REIGN OF ELIZABETH [1558- 

miicli to do at iLome, tliat ske was very anxious not to incur 
expense l^y pnrsiiing an energetic policy in Ireland, and was willing 
_, to rule tlie island tliroug-li tlie local cMeftains, as her 

O'Neill and father had done. Quarrels among the O'Neills, the 
Elizabeth, chief native Irish sept, or family, in Ulster, soon made 

this idea impracticahle. The head of the O'Neills had 
been made earl of Tyrone by Henry viii. in the hope of winning 
him over to the English side. Shane O'Neill, the ablest and fiercest 
of his sons, was disgusted to find his father obtain from the English 
permission to make another of his children his successor as earl. 
He therefore rose in revolt, murdered his brother, and drove his 
father out of the country. The O'Neills elected the victorious 
Shane as chief of the sept, or, as he was called, The O'Neill, and the 
successful rebel made himself absolute master of Ulster. Elizabeth 
strove in vain to treat with him, but Shane was so strong that he 
openly defied her ; and in 1567, the deputy. Sir Henry Sidney, 
the father of Sir Philip, was compelled to wage war against 
him. Before long Shane was murdered by a rival clan which 
envied the power of the O'Neills. 

22. Sidney made Ulster shire-ground, and Walter Devereux, 
first earl of Essex, tried to establish a settlement of Protestant 
Ireland and ^^^^^^i^^s i^ Antrim, which was soon an utter failure, 
the Counter- Before long Ulster fell back into its old lawless freedom, 
Reforma- and Sidney's work seemed to be altogether in vain. 

A great change was now beginning to bring Irish 
politics into closer relations with the great world. Up to now 
Ireland had been quite separated from all European movements. 
But the constant trouble which Ireland gave Elizabeth tempted the 
queen's Catholic enemies to avail themselves of the Irish hatred of 
England and the English religion, and make their land a centre 
of the Counter- Reformation. The pope sent priests and the king o£ 
Spain sent soldiers to Ireland, and these kindled a new rebellion in 

1579. This was not, like the revolt of Shane O'Neill, 
The the work of a native clan. Its centre was the Munster 

Febellion branch of the great Norman house of Fitzgerald, 
1579, and whose head was the earl of Desmond. Elizabeth j)ut 
thePlanta- down the revolt with great cruelty, and reduced the 
Munster. Desmond country to a desert. The rebels' lands were 

forfeited to the crown, and in 1584 a systematic 
attempt was made to establish EngKsh colonists in Munster. This 
was called the Plantation of Munster. The forfeited estates were 
divided antong gentlemen adventurers, who were to let out their 



-1584.] LATTER YEARS OF REIGN OF ELIZABETH 403 

lands to Englisli farmers. But most of the grantees remained in 
England, and sought to make profit out of their estates by hiring 
them out for as much rent as they could get. Few Englishmen 
would pay high rents for land in Ireland, where they stood a good 
chance of being mm-dered by the natives, and were certain to Kve 
rough and uncomfortable lives. The result was that the Plantation 
of Munster proved a failure. A few poor gentlemen, one of whom 
was the poet Edmund Spenser, settled down in the old homes of 




Emery 'Walker sc 



IRELAKD U^"DER THE TUDORS. 



the Desmonds, but the mass of the forfeited lands were granted to 
Irishmen, who alone would offer the impossible terms demanded 
by their landlords. Before long rebellion made short work of the 
scattered English settlers, and the only real result of the move- 
ment was the establishment of some gTeat Englisli landlords in the 
estates once held by the Desmond family. 

23. The suppression of the Desmond revolt left Ireland in com- 
parative peace for twenty years. During this period bitter hatred of 



404 LATTER YEARS OF REIGN OF ELIZABETH [1598- 

tlie Eng-lisli and the new ze^d of tlie IrisL. for Catholicism were rapidly 
breaking" down tlie barriers wMoh. separated clan from clan and the 
The Irish ^^ Irish from the descendants of the !Normans. When 
revolt of revolt again broke out in 1598, it was not confined to 
^^9^' 2>, single family, race, or district. When the head of 

the O'Neills, Shane's nephew Eaigh, earl of Tyrone, raised Ulster, 
he had among^ his supporters the rival clan of the O'Donnells, 
because he was not like Shane fighting simply for his own clan, 
but for the pope and all Ireland. Moreover, the rising spread to 
Munster, where the return of the exiled earl of Desmond g-ave the 
signal for a general revolt, which soon swept away the Eng'lish 
colonists. Soon all Ireland was a,blaze with rebellion. It was the 
first combined national and Catholic movement against Eng-lish 
supremacy. 

24. Robert Devereux, earl of Essex, the son of the would-be 
colonizer of Antrim, and the hero of the Cadiz expedition of 1596, 
Essex in ^^^ ^ gallant and showy young nobleman, and the 
Ireland, chief favourite of the old queen. Though his wayward- 
1 599. j^Qgg ]-^g^^ already irritated his sovereign, she entrusted 
him, in 1599, with the difl5.oult task of suppressing the Irish 
rising. Essex, however, managed matters very incompetently, and 

soon gave up the task in disg'ust. In 1600 a stronger 

Mountjoy roller was found in Charles Blount, lord Mountioy, 
suppress _ ^ j ^ ' 

the rebel- under whom the Irish resistance was gradually broken 
lion, ^ down. Though a large Spanish force come to their help, 
Mount joy's energy and ruthlessness finally prevailed 
over all opposition. The O'N'eills held out longest, but about the time 
of Elizabeth's death, Mountjoy pressed them so hard that Tyrone was 
•forced to make his submission. Thus Ireland was at last conquered ; 
but the cruelty of the process, largely the result of the queen's 
over-thriftiness, left the bitterest memories behind it. The Irish 
loathed the foreign yoke, and were only kept down by sheer force. 

25. While Ireland was thus conquered by Elizabeth, important 
steps were being taken to bring about the union of Britain. Wales, 

united to England on equal terms by Henry viii., was 
towards under Elizabeth for the first time won over to Pro- 

British testantism by native bishops, of whom the most im- 

portant was William Morgan, bishop of St. Asaph, 
whose single-minded zeal procured the publication of a translation 
of the whole Bible into Welsh, so that it became easy to preach 
Protestantism with effect to the Welsh people in their own tongue. 
Moreover, the new friendship which common Protestantism had 



-i6o3.] LATTER YEARS OF REIGN OF ELIZABETH 405 

brought about between England and Scotland was working out its 
natural results. Tliough the wiU. of Henry viii. had provided that 
the succession to the English throne should go to the descendants 
of his younger sister, Mary, duchess of Suffolk, no one paid any 
serious regard to the children of Lady Catharine Grey, Lady Jane's 
sister. It was generally agreed that when the old gueen died, the 
next monarch would be the king of Scots, though Elizabeth herself 
was so jealous of power that she could never bear to have mentioned 
the question of the succession. 

26. The last years of the reign of Elizabeth were a period of 
wonderful prosperity. Britain was at peace ; Ireland was being 
conquered ; the Spaniards were beaten, and the pope -pj^g Cecils 
and the Jesuits were no longer dangerous. The newly Essex, and 
found restlessness and energy which had disputed with ei&h. 
Spain the sovereignty of the seas, and won for England the 
beginnings of her commerce and maritime greatness, found other 
outlets in the most wondrous outburst of literature that Eng- 
land was ever to witness. Hardly moved by these new glories, 
Elizabeth grew old in increasing loneliness as her old favourites 
and ministers were taken away by death. Burghley, the last of 
the band, died in 1598, and was lucky in handing on his power to 
his son, Sir Robert Cecil. While Robert Cecil upheld the cautious 
views of his father, Essex and Raleigh represented the party that 
wished to prosecute the war with Spain with more activity than 
the prudent Cecils would allow. Essex, the favourite of the queen's 
old age, finally lost her favour by his incompetence in Ireland. On 
his return without leave from his Irish government, EKzabeth put 
him into prison. He was soon released, but ordered not to show 
himseK at court. Like a spoilt child he fretted under his sovereign's 
displeasure. As he could not persuade Elizabeth to receive him 
again, he strove, in 1601, to excite a revolt among the Londoners, 
hoping thereby to drive the Cecils from power and compel the old 
queen to readmit him to his former position. Essex's attempt 
utterly failed, and he was convicted and executed as a traitor. 
The result of his folly was to establish Robert Cecil more firmly 
than ever as chief minister until the old queen's death. 

27. As troubles from abroad lessened, EKzabeth had increased 
difficulties with her own subjects. Some of tliis was perhaps due 
to that arbitrary temper which resented all opposition as disloyalty, 
and continued measures barely justifiable in a time of great crisis 
when the crisis was almost over. Thus Whitgift continued to 
harry the Puritans as if their excesses were still a danger to 



406 LATTER YEARS OF REIGN OF ELIZABETH [1558- 

Protestantism. Long after England had. ceased to have any real 
need to fear tlie pope, the Roman Catholics were still j)ersecnted 
almost as cruelly as in the days of the Hfe-and-death 
Bepseeutk)n struggle of the two faiths in the years immediately 
of Puritans succeeding the huU of Pius v. The prisons remained 
^'^d _ crowded witli popish recusants, and the ghastly execu- 

^ ° '^ ' tions of CathoKc priests as traitors were stUl numerous. 
But, in addition to her old troubles, Elizabeth now had to face 
difficulties in dealing* with her parliaments. 

28. Like Henry viii., Elizabeth had striven to base her govern- 
ment on the support of parliament. Even under Mary the House 

b th ^^ Commons had begun to show sig-ns of restiveness, 
and hep and Elizabeth was soon to discover that the days of 

Parlia- her father were over, and that neither Lords nor 

"'^^^ ^' Commons would submissively ratify all her commands. 

Her early parliaments gave her general supj)ort, and were liberal 
in making grants, but they irritated her by urging her to marry, 
to conciliate the Puritans, and take up a more Protestant foreign 
policy. She therefore resolved to have as little to do with parlia- 
ments as she could, and practised great parsimony so as to avoid 
frequent occasion for calling them together, so that there were 
only thirteen sessions of parliament during the forty-five years 
of her reign. Moreover, she showed much skill in keeping the 
House of Commons in good humour whenever she had occasion to 
assemble it. She increased her influence over it by creating a large 
number of new boroughs, mostly small places, wliich were sure to 
return any members that she selected. Sir Robert Cecil also, thoug'h 
her chief minister, remained a commoner, and sat in every parlia- 
ment, being perhaps the first Eng'lish statesman who took gi-eat 
pains to manage the House of Commons and persuade it to uphold 
his policy. If parliament got out of hand, Elizabeth did not 
scruple to rebuke it, to silence it, or to send the leading commoners 
to the Tower. Such arbitrary action only increased the Commons' 
irritation, and made them excessively jealous of their rig-hts. 

29. Elizabeth's tact and 'insight, and the Commons' confidence 

in her general policy, postponed serious conflict untO. the concluding 

^, ,, years of her reign. At last, in 1597, the Commons 

The Monopo "^ ^ . , j i 

lies contest, sent up a grave remonstrance against the queen s over- 

1597 and lavish grants of monopolies. A monopoly was the 

exclusive right to sell a certain article, so that the 

holder of the privilege could enrich himseK by raising its price 

without fear of competition. Such au. exclusive right given to an 



-i6o3.] LATTER YEARS OF REIGN OF ELIZABETH 407 

inventor or discoverer is common enough nowadays, and does 
more good tlian harm. But Elizabeth found that the grant of a 
monopoly was the cheapest way in wliich she could reward her 
favourites and courtiers, and she soon created so many monopolies 
in common articles of necessity that they became a serious bui-den 
to her people. Even the remonstrances of the parliament of 1597 
bore little fruit, and in 1601 a new parliament met and renewed 
the complaints of its predecessor. When the list of monopolies 
was read before the Commons, a member exclaimed, " Is not bread 
among the number ? !N^ay, but it will be if no remedy be found 
before the next parliament." So loud was the outcry that 
Elizabeth gave way. She promised to revoke all monopolies "that 
weighed heavily upon her peoi)le, and graciously thanked the 
Commons for calling her attention to grievances of which other- 
wise she would have had no knowledge. Thus her tact triumphed 
over the arbitrary temper of her family, and though England had 
outgrown the Tudor desi)otism, men bore w illin gly the rule of so 
popular a queen and so good an Eng'lishwoman. 

30. Elizabeth's health was now breaking up, but she still 
refused to nominate her successor, though aU her ministers 
wished to have the king of Scots. As she lay dying, j. ., - 
they urged her to declare her wishes. When her Elizabeth, 
statesmen spoke of the king of Scots, she gave no sign ; 1603. 
but when they mentioned Lord Beauchamp, the son of Catharine 
Grrey, she fired up, and cried, " I wiU have no rascal's son in my 
seat ! " At last she died on March 24, 1603, when nearly seventy 
years old 

THE CECIL AXD BACOX FAMILIES 
&ir Anthony Cooke 



Mary m. (1) William Cecil, (2) m. Mildred Cooke 
Cheke Lord Bura:liley, 
d. 1598. 
(1) I (2) 



Anne m 
Cooke 



Sir Xicliolas 

Bacon, Lord 

Keeper 



Thomas Cecil, 
first Lord Exeter. 

Richard Cecil, 
ancestor of present 
Marquis of Exeter. 

I 
Edward Cecil, 
Viscount Wimbledon, 
d. 1638. 



Eobert Cecil, first 

earl of Salisburv 

d. 1612, 

ancestor of the 

Marquis of Salisbury, 

prime minister of 

Queen Victoria. 



Francis Bacon, 
Viscount St. Albans 
and Lord Chancellor, 
d. 1626. 



CHAPTER VIII 
ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS 

1. The Tudor period saw tlie end of the Middle Ages, and tlie 
beginnings of modern times. It was a season of great revolutionary 
The b • - clianges. It was the age of the Henascence, or the new 
nings of hirth of thought, and learning, and of the Reformation 

modern which saw the break up of the unity of the Church of 

imes. ^-^^ Middle Ages. Though the Counter-Reforination 

threatened both Renascence and Reformation, it was, so far as 
England went, powerless to change the direction of our national 
life. Elizabeth saved the Reformation which Henry viii. had 
begun, and restored the g-reatness of the English state. Under her 
the Renascence first took a firm hold of her people, and manifested 
itself in the great outburst of many-sided energy that marked the 
last five and twenty years of her reign. 

2. Such a time of revolutionary storms needed strong pilots to 
steer the ship of state, and the veiled despotism of the Tudors gave 

England a form of government which carried it success- 
monarch'"' ^^J through the age of crisis. Yet the vigorous 

power exercised by these sovereigns was not due to any 
formal change in the constitution so much as to . the confidence of 
the people, the ability of the monarchs, the needs of the times, and 
the decay of the two great checks that had curbed the power of 
mediaeval monarchs. The Church had fallen, and the nobility had 
lost its old independence. Prelate and noble, the rivals of earlier 
kings, were now the chief supports of the throne. The independent 
Commons had not yet arisen. 

3. Parliament continued to hold its ancient position, and it was 
a part of Tudor statecraft to obtain parliamentary sanction for 
Parliament ^^^ niost arbitrary acts. Up to the end of Elizabeth's 
under the reign the Commons could always be trusted to endorse 
Tudops. j.-^Q royal policy. Changes in the constitution of parHa- 
ment tended to increase its subservience on the crown. Thus the 
House of Lords became CLuite different from the House of Lords of 

408 



1603.] ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS 409 

the Middle Ages. It had been an independent body, mainly ecclesi- 
astical in character. It became a preponderating-ly lay assembly, 
and strictly submissive to the crown. Even before the mitred 
abbots were removed by Henry viii. there was a small lay majority. 
After 1539 the ecclesiastical element, only represented by the 
bishops, became insignificant. Even a more important change was 
brought about by the dying away of the ancient baronial houses, 
and the rise in their place of new families, enriched by the spoils of 
the monasteries, and owing their importance to the service of the 
crown. Few old families like the Howards, Nevilles, and Percies 
still stood out among the E-ussells, Cavendishes, Cecils, and other 
ministerial houses of recent date. Though the number of lay peers 
was still very small, the majority was well under the control of the 
crown. Not many Tudor bishops were bold enough to disobey the 
orders of their supreme governor. While the Lords on the whole 
declined in number, the number of the Commons was added to by 
Henry viii.'s new members from Wales and Cheshire, and by 
frequent creations of boroughs. Many of these latter were places 
of no importance, and were only called upon to return members in 
order to increase the influence of the crown. 

4. There was little friction between crown and parliament, 
since the province of the two authorities were recognized as 
distinct. Parliament raised taxes, passed laws, and „ 

sent up complaints if anything went amiss. The between 
spending of money, and the execution of the laws were C^o^yn and 
entirely in the hands of the crown. The great feature ^^J^^^i^^nt. 
of the constitutional history of the time is the strengthening of the 
executive power of the monarchy, both in its central and local organs. 

5. The king was his own chief minister, and held in his own 
hands all the strings of policy. But the task of ruling a grea^ 
country was so laborious that he was forced to share jhe king 
the burden with his ministers. These ministers were and his 
partly great noblemen, who held as of prescriptive "^i^^^sters. 
right the ancient high offices of state, such as those of treasurer, 
admiral, or chancellor. But a great noble was not always clever 
or hard-working, and could not always be trusted to play the king's 
game. The result was that important and confidential business 
was increasingly left to the king's two secretaries, who were called 
under Elizabeth the secretaries of state. The Tudor secretaries 
were men of humbler rank but greater ability than the high 
officials. They were professional statesmen, and quite devoted to 
their uiaster. From their staff of clerks and subordinates we have 



4IO ENGLAND UNDER THE 7'UDORS [14^55- 

tlie begmning of tlie elaborate civil service and the complicated 
macMnery of govern ment of the modern state. 

6. "When the king wanted advice he went to his council, now 
sometimes called the jprivy council. This was a smaller and more 

confidential body than the Concilium ordinariv/m of 
earlier times, which was now practically extinct. The 
Tudor council was a small board of less than twenty members, and 
including as a rule men of different ways of thinking, so that the 
king could hear all sorts of opinions in it. It was so active and 
powerful that the Tudor period has well been described as the age of 
government by council. Yet it was the king or queen that acted : 
the council only advised. When the crown had decided, it was the 
business of the council to carry out the royal vrill. Besides its 
main consultative and administrative function, the council issued 
ordinances or ])roclainaUons, wliich were not very different from 
new laws, and wliich encroached on the powers of Parliament. In 
the same way council encroached upon the law courts by its ever- 
increasing judicial activity. 

7. The jurisdiction of the council was an inheritance from the 
Middle Ages, but was largely added to in Tudor times. Its 

judicial functions were largely handed over to a com- 

Chaml^p mittee, wliich soon became identified vrith the special 

and the tribunal set up for the trial of great offenders by Henry 

local vii.'s statute against livery and maintenance. This 

councils* . . 

body, which acq[uired the name of the Star Chamber 

from holding its sessions in a room whose ceiling was painted vrith 
stars, became in substance the council in its judicial aspect, includ- 
ing all the councillors and some of the chief judges. It did good 
work all throug-h Tudor times, partly by making great offenders 
obey the law, and partly by taking a quicker, wider, and' more equit- 
able view of cases than was possible for the common law courts with 
their stiff traditions of what the law should be. A feature of Tudor 
times was the establishment of local courts of the same type as the 
Star Chamber, such as the Council of the North at York, and the 
Council of Wales at Ludlow. The Court of High Commission, set 
up at Elizabeth's accession, did for the Church what the other pre- 
rogative courts did for the state. This last body always provoked 
much opposition, but it was hardly untO. Stewart times that the lay 
courts became oppressive. All, however, owed their authority 
to the crown, and worked without a jury and without the traditional 
regard to fixed legal principles which were both the glory and the 
limitation of the common law courts. 



-i6o3.] ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS 4I I 

8. Local administi-atioii was in the liands of the countiy gentry. 
The shire moot was now obsolete excej)t for parliamentary elections, 
having been superseded by the justices of the peace, Local 

who acted under royal conunissions, yet were not state govern- 
officials, but the independent and unpaid gentry of the ment. 
district. The justices as individuals tried petty offenders, and all the 
justices of the county met from time to time in quarter sessions, 
which discharged the whole functions of local government. It 
is characteristic of the popular character of the Tudor monarchy 
that it felt itself strong enough to hand over such important work 
to the local gentry. The schooling in law and administration which 
his work as justice gave every country squire was of immense 
importance in preparing the way for the time when a new genera- 
tion of the landed gentry led in the House of Commons the revolt 
against the Stewarts. 

9. Another aspect of the popular Tudor despotism was its power 
to govern without the aid of a strong military force. There were 
no regular soldiers in Tudor England, save a corxDS jy^Qj^-g^py 

of yeomen to guard the king's person, and the weakness 
permanent garrisons of Calais, Berwick, and a few o^ the 
fortresses. Henry yiii. liired foreign mercenaries in 
the latter years of his reign, but they soon disapi)eared after his 
death. The main defence of the country still fell upon the local 
tnilitia, to serve in which was one of the duties of a citizen. It 
was commanded by a lord lieutenant, appointed for every county 
since the days of EdwaVd vi. and Mary. Under him were deputy- 
lieutenants, who belonged, like the justices of the peace, to the 
local gentry. Thus even military commands were entrusted by the 
Tudors to the country squires. More was done by the state for 
the navy than the army, but even in a crisis like the Armada, the 
forces of the crown had to be supplemented by armed merchant- 
men. 

10. Competition became fiercer, and careers were more readily 
opened to talent as the modern spirit became stronger. The sup- 
pression of the monasteries did much to uproot the old gQ_-_ j _ ^ 
social and economic order, and the annals of Henry viii. economic 
and Edward vi. show how the spirit of unrest was changes, 
abroad, and how much suffering was involved in the displacement 
of the ancient landmarks. Yet class distinctions remained strong, 
even when it was easier to rise from one class to another. The 
gentry were still a class apart from the rest of the community ; but 
the professional and merchant classes were attaining increased 



412 ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS [1485- 

importance. The one great mediaeval profession, that of the clergy, 
lost power, wealth, and social estimation. A married clergy found 
it hard to live on the scanty remnants of the old endowments, and 
a large proportion of the parish priests were ill educated as well as 
poor. But lawyers made great fortunes, and the medical profession 
begins to have a status when Henry viii. set up the Colleges 
of Physicians and Surgeons. Trade grew, and with it the wealth 
and importance of the merchants, until the highest classes in 
the land became infected with the commercial spirit. Elizabeth 
herself took shares, and made her profit out of Drake's piratical 
attacks on Spain. Landholders regarded their estates as a com- 
mercial investment which must return them a high rate of interest 
for their outlay. The permanent result of this spirit was by no 
means all evil. As the century grew old, new ways of employ- 
ment were opened up, which got rid of the sturdy beggar more 
effectively than the cruel laws of an earlier time. Corn-growing 
again became profitable as population increased and markets 
were developed. Fresh crops, such as hops and many new fruits and 
vegetables, were introduced from the continent, and before the 
great queen's death the cultivation of the potato was brought in 
from America. There were more manufactures, and emigration, 
especially to Ireland, afforded careers for those without occupation 
at home. Thus both the yeomen and the craftsmen flourished. 
Many yeomen were able to buy up the lands of the unthrifty 
gentry, and the successful trader from the towns was constantly 
becoming absorbed in the landed classes. Anxiety to keep up the 
supply of skilled workmen took the shape of Elizabeth's famous 
Act of Apprentices of 1563, which declared tjiat no one should 
exercise a trade until he had served a seven years' apprenticeship in 

it. The same year saw the first attempt of the state 
Laws ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^P ^ systematic and compulsory system of poor 

relief. This culminated in the most famous of the 
Elizabethan poor laws, passed in 1601. By it the justices were 
empowered to nominate overseers in every parish, and these had 
authority to tax every inhabitant, so as to pf'ovide the sums neces- 
sary to support the poor of the parisli. Thus grew up our system 
of poor relief, which remained much the same until the new poor 
law of 1834. 

11. One sign of the growth of English resources was the 
wonderful raising of the material standards of comfort and civiKza- 
tion. The gross abundance of earlier times had given Englishmen 
plenty to eat and drink, and the upper classes lived with great 



-i6o3.] ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS 413 

outward state and magnificence. Now the ordinary man's liouse 
was built more solidly and comfortably, and lovers of old ways 
denounced the effeminate luxury that rejected round j g e f 
logs for pillows and bolsters, clean straw or rushes for refinement 
carpets and tapestry, and a hole in the roof to let out ^'^^ luxury, 
the smoke for a chimney. Forks came into general use instead of 
fingers. Food also became more varied and wholesome. The intro- 
duction of hops improved the quality of beer, and towards the end of 
the period American explorers introduced a new luxury in tobacco. 
Men ate so much flesh meat that the state, not so much for 
religious reasons as for the sake of encouraging the fisheries, strove 
to keep up the old habit of fasting on Fridays. Dress became 
exceedingly rich and gorgeous, and the clothes both for men and 
women became less tasteful and more barbaric in Elizabeth's days. 
Conspicuous articles of ladies' attire were the ruff, an exaggerated 
collar, towering high above the neck, and the farthingale, or hoop, 
which assumed a ridiculous stiffness and enormous dimensions. 

12. Education became wider, and affected larger classes of 
society. Though the changes in religion resulted in much un- 
necessary havoc among the schools and colleges that 
had come down from the Middle Ages, some effort was F d t^'a^^l 
made to set up new ones in their place, and education 
was no longer regarded as simply a training for scholars and pro- 
fessional men. A certain amount of culture was demanded from 
every gentleman and lady. A gentleman was expected to be well 
read, fond of poetry and music, an expert in fencing and horse- 
manship, polished in his manner, and elegant in his garb. For 
an education so comprehensive as this, travel was one of the best 
schools, and the educated scholar and gentleman made a point of 
going abroad, particularly to Italy, which was still the traditional 
centre of European intellectual life. Lovers of old ways com- 
plained that many Englishmen got more harm than good from 
their foreign experience, and denounced the x>rofligacy and irre- 
ligion that too often made the '• Italianate Englishman a devil 
Incarnate." Travel was facilitated by the better police of the seas 
that kept down piracy, and within England by the introduction of 
coaches, which, however heavy and cumbrous they seem to us, were 
denounced as dangerous luxuries, only permissible to the aged and 
infirm. Men still mainly made their journeys on horseback, and 
gentlemen carried arms, partly as a sign of their gentility, but 
partly as a means of protection against the robbers that infested 
every highway. 



414 ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS [1485- 

13. Ajiother sign of modern times was the dying* out of Grothic 
arcliitectiire, tliongh this took place very slowly. Under Henry viii. 
Renascence ^^ stately a Gothic building as Bath Abhey could still 
apchitee- be erected, wliile the methods of mediaeval construction 
tupe. lingered on, notably at Oxford and Cambridge, until 
the middle of the seventeenth century. The age of the E-ef orma- 
tion did not build churches, but pulled them down, so that it is to 
domestic and civil rather than to ecclesiastical architecture that we 
must look if we would study the change of fashion that now came 
in. Italian influence made itself felt about the middle of the century, 
though few great houses were erected in the pure Renascence or 
Italian style. The gorgeous palaces of Elizabethan nobles were still 
Grothic in their general outline, but the details and the ornamen- 
tation were those which the classic revival had borrowed from Italy. 
As good examples of this mixed Elizabethan or Jacobean style, as 
it is called, we may mention the two great houses of Burg-hley, near 
Stamford, and Hatfield, in Hertfordshire, which were erected by 
William and Robert Cecil. Though the style may easily be criti- 
cized as a confused medley of different types, it is picturesque, 
appropriate, and dignified. The mansions erected in it were much 
more comfortable to live in than the castles of the Middle Ages. 

14. Other arts were less flourishing than architecture. There 
was a real English school of Church musicians, and the Elizabethan 

composers could set appropriate music to the delicate 
lyrics of the best age of English song-writing. 
English painting and sculpture were, however, at a low ebb, 
as many a bad picture in old houses, and still more numerous 
stiff and clumsy sculptured tombs of Elizabethan worthies show. 
Henry viii., who loved art and splendour, gave pensions to foreign 
artists, though many of them were not much more skilled in their 
craft than their English rivals. Some of Henry's foreign artists, 
however, were men of real distinction. The Italian sculptor, 
Torrigiano, wrought for him the beautiful effigies of Henry vii. and 
the Lady Margaret Beaufort, his mother, in the new Henry vii.'s 
chapel of Westminster Abbey, wliich is itself one of the glories 
of sixteenth- century Grothic architecture. The Grerman Hans 
Holbein spent nearly twenty years in Engiand in the latter part 
of the reign of Henry viii., and has painted and drawn the men 
of that age with uncompromising truthfulness and consummate 
technical skill. Yery inferior to this great artist were the common^ 
place painters who came from Italy and Flanders to portray the 
worthies of the age of Elizabeth. 



-i6o3.] ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS 415 

15. For the first tkree- quarters of the sixteenth century the 
output of good lioorature in England was not great. But the 
activity of the numerous printing-presses showed how 

love of learning and a taste for reading had spread, ^fepature ^ 
Poets still followed the fashion set by Chaucer, but 
it was in Scotland rather than in Engiand that the Chaucerian 
tradition was most fruitful of g'ood work. The real literary 
importance of the early part of Henry viii.'s reign is not so much 
the actual literature produced as the impulse which men like Colet 
and More set towards the humanism of the E/enascence. The 
most notable book produced by this circle of reformers was More's 
Utopia. Though written in Latin, it was, as we have seen, very 
definitely English in its ujisparing analysis of the evil§ from which 
our country was then suffering. The next generation saw the 
effects of the E.ef ormation in such work as Latimer's homely and 
outspoken Sermons, while the habitual use of the various Eng'lish 
translations of the Bible and of the Edwardian JBooh of Common 
Prayer did much to set up a high standard of dignified English 
prose. The fashion of writing became less cumbrous and more 
direct in the straightforward English, written much after the 
fashion of homely speech, which came from the pen of the school- 
master and reformer, Koger Ascham, whose works mark the 
beginnings of a more modern style of English prose. 

16. Towards the end of Henry viii.'s reig-n a new school of poets 
arose, which derived its chief impulse from Italy. At its head 
were Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, the headstrong . 
lord beheaded by Henry viii. in 1547, and Sir Thomas nings of 
Wyatt, the father of the rebel against Queen Mary. Elizabethan 
This school broug-ht in Italian metres such as the ^^^^^^^^^^' 
sonnet and hlanh verse, and their occasional poems became widely 
read in manuscript in courtly circles, though they were fii'st printed 
in Tottel's Miscellany, a collection of verses pubKshed by a book- 
seller named Tottel in the reign of Queen Mary. From the issue of 
this epoch-making collection the new inspiration to poetry began. 
It was, however, but very slowly that the new spirit made itself 
generally felt. The first twenty years of the reign of Elizabeth 
were not much more productive than the generation that preceded 
them. Then the true Elizabethan literature burst forth with 
strange suddenness and overwhelming glory, in those days of fierce 
struggle when England was fighting for her existence against the 
Jesuits and the Spaniards, when Drake was sailing round the 
world, and when Gilbert and Raleigh were first dreaming of 



41 6 ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS [1485- 

an EiigKsli colonial empire. A wonderful output of tlie noblest 
works illustrated the last five and twenty years of tlie queen's reign, 
and continued well into the next century. Much of what is most 
distinctly regarded as Elizabethan was written under James i. 

17. The pubKcation of Edmund Spenser's Sliepheo^d's Calendar 
in 1579 begins the flowering time of Elizabethan poetry, and 
Snensep ' revealed to the world the greatest poet of the new era. 
and the Spenser was soon called away from literary work to 
poets. take part in the plantation of Munster, whence, after 
twenty years of prosperity, he was driven out by the last Desmond 
rebellion, to die ere long* in London, poor and disappointed, but 
never neglected. His great unfinished epic, the Faerie Queen, 
written in Ireland, and published in 1589 and 1598, sets forth in 
the richest and most musical of verse all that was best in the 
spirit of the English Renascence — imagination, cliivalry, love of 
beauty, enthusiasm for knowledge, delight in allegory, mystery, 
adventure, and fairy tales, burning devotion to Engiand and her 
queen, earnest moral purpose, and fierce hatred of the poj^e and 
Spain. Si)enser's work stands alone, but some share of his poetic 
spirit was reflected in a crowd of lesser writers. His love-sonnets 
increased the fashion for long sonnet cycles, which had already 
obtained much vogue through the following of foreign examples, 
and through the sonnets wherein Spenser's friend and patron, Sir 
Philip Sidney, described his unhappy love for Stella. This tendency 
reached its supreme height in the wonderful sonnets of Shakespeare. 
Nothing, however, better shows how the spirit of poetry was in 
the air than the g-race and spontaneity of many a nameless lyric 
that can be found in the song-books and plays of this great age. 

18. Most of all is the spirit of the Elizabethan period reflected in 
the development of the dramatic literature, which is its special glory. 

The mediseval taste for mysteries and mora,lities had 

The first spread among the people a great taste for shows and 

theatres theatrical entertainments, which, inspired by the classic 

and their spirit of the Renascence, found a new outlet in repre- 

perform- sentations of Latin plays by scholars at the universities 
ances. x »/ »» 

and Inns of Court, and finally led to their imitation in 

English. At last the rude beginnings of a more national English 
drama began to appear, and as the taste for their representation 
grew, regular theatres were opened in which plays could be acted. 
In 1576, James Burbage, the first famous Elizabethan actor, opened 
the first building set apart for di-amatic performances at Shore- 
ditch, just outside the city of London. It soon had many rivals 



'i6o3.] ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS 417 

and successors, of wMcli the best known was the Glohe theatre 
in Sonthwark. These Elizabethan playhouses were but rude 
structures, built of wood and roofed with thatch at the sides. 
They were exposed in the centre to the weatlier, except on the side 
of the stage, where the wealthy patrons of the drama sat on stools 
among- the actors, while the ordinary spectators stood in the exposed 
pit, and the few ladies who ventured to be present, hid themselves 
away masked, in boxes ranged round the covered sides of the house. 
Performances took place in the afternoon, and Sunday was the 
favourite day for them, though the Puritans looked askance on 
this violation of the sabbath as well as at the reckless profligacy 
of many of the actors, and the lax morality of many of the pieces. 
There was hardly any scenery and properties, though the actors 
often wore rich dresses. Boys acted women's parts, which were, 
however, but few as compared with the number of male characters. 
Though there was little money to be got by writing plays, success- 
ful managers and actors were able, with prudence, to make a fortune. 

19. The opening of public theatres soon brought about a 
wonderful change in the quality of the pieces performed in them. 
A group of young men who had acquired a taste for Marlowe and 
the drama at the universities, settled down in London, the early 
where they lived riotous lives and wrote plays which, ^^^^^n^^tists. 
with much bombast and crudity, revealed real fire and action and 
a vein of true poetry. The great age of the drama began when 
Christopher Marlowe, the most gifted of the band, produced his 
Tmnhurlaine the Cfreat in 1587. In Marlowe's short, riotous, and 
tragic career the first stage of EKzabethan tragedy reached its 
height. Cut off in a tavern brawl before he was thirty, he had left 
work behind him whose force and passion gave him a permanent 
rank among the great poets of the world. 

20. About the time that Marlowe wrote Tamhurlauie, William 
Shakespeare, a youth of two or three and twenty, left his home and 
family at Stratford-on-Avon and went to London to shake- 
push his fortunes. He soon found profitable employ- speare and 
ment in working up old plays for representation, and ^^ ^*^ °° * 
before long, inspired largely by Mar] owe's genius, began to attempt 
original flights of liis own. After essays at fantastic and boisterous 
comedy, his fervid love tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, and his 
stirring patriotic dramas from English liistory, secured for him a 
foremost position in his craft, while the Merchant of Venice, pro- 
duced in 1594, a few months after Marlowe's success, first demon- 
strated the full extent of his powers. Shrewd, businesslike, and 

2e 



41 8 ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS. [1485- 

tiirif ty, lie liad attained before Elizabeth's death a competent fortune, 
a high social position, and a reputation quite unique among his 
contemporaries. His profound knowledge of the human heart, his 
breadth, naturalness, and self-restraint, his deep passion, abundant 
hnmour, ripeness of judgment, and wonderful command of the 
mother tongue, stand by themselves in all literature. E-onnd him 
gathered a great school of dramatists, whose work, attaining its 
climax under James i., slowly decayed under his successor, until the 
great civil war brought it to an end. 

21. EKzabethan prose did not attain the level of Elizabethan 
poetry or the drama. There were few received standards of prose 
composition, and the force and spirit of the age were 
pro:^^^^^" ^^^^ hidden away by the quaint conceits and tangled 
and inartistic periods of many able writers. Richard 
Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, which raised ecclesiastical pamph- 
leteering into sound and dignified literature, and Sir Francis 
Bacon's famous Essa,ys, first published in 1597, were the greatest 
masterpieces of Elizabethan prose. The patriotic impulse of the 
age was reflected in the large output of historical work, of which 
Holinshead's Chronicles, from which Shakespeare derived so much 
of his history, are a conspicuous example. A feature of the time 
was the extensive literature of travel and adventure, foremost 
among which was Hakluyt's Principal Navigations of the English 
Nation (1587), wherein the simple narration of the great deeds of 
the Elizabethan seamen brings home vividly to us the close connec- 
tion between the life and the literature of the time. It was the 
richest, fullest, and most heroic period of English history. 

Books recommended for the Further Study of the Period 

1485-1603 

Gairdner's Henry VIT. ; Creighton's Wolsey (both in Macmillan'' s Twelve 
English Statesmen) ; Brewer's Reign of Henry VIII. (to the fall of Wolsey) ; 
Pollard's Henry VIII. and the Protector Somerset; Fronde's History of England 
from the fall of Wolsey to the death of the Armada (12 vols.), brilliant, preju- 
diced and inaccurate, but of value for tlie reign of Elizabeth ; Creighton's 
Queen Elizabeth ; Seebohm's Protestant Revolution {Epochs of Modern His~ 
tory), useful for foreign relations in the early sixteenth century. For eccle- 
siastical history, Gairdner's History of the English Church from Henry VIII. 
to Mary; W. H. Frere's History of the English Church under Elizabeth and 
James I., and Perry's Reformation in England (Epochs of Church Histor3''). 
More's Utopia, E,. Robinson's translation, Harrison's Description of England, 
and Payne's Voyages of Elizabethan Seamen illustrate important aspects of 
this period. The chapters on England in the Cambridge Modern History pre- 
sent in a succinct form the facts of our history from 1485 onwards ; more 
details are in Pol. Hist, of England, vol. v., 1485-1547, by H. Fisher, and 
vol. vi., 1547-1603, by A. F. Pollard. 



-2603.] 



ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS 



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BOOK VI 

THE STEWARTS (1603-1714) 

CHArTER I 

JAMES I. (1603-1625) 

Chief Dates ; 

1603. Accession of James i. 

1605. Gunpowder Plot. 

1607. Plantation of Virginia. 

1610. Plantation of Ulster and Dissolution of James' First Parliament. 

1614. The Addled Parliament. 

1618. Execution of Raleigh and Beginning of Thirty Years' War. 

1620. Voyage of the Mayflower, 

1621. Fall of Bacon. 

1624. War with Spain. 

1625. Death of James i. 

1. The house of Stewart, wLicli liad "been reigning- over Scotland 
for more tlian two Imndred years, mounted tlie English throne at 

the death of Queen Elizabeth. Its accession to the 
of the^*°" throne meant much more than is ordinarily involved* 
English and in the change of one dynasty for another. The peace- 
Scottish f^ union of the rival monarchies of England and 
cpowns. 

Scotland was a great thing in itself; and it became 

more important since James i., the new king, was very anxious to 
make the union as complete as he could. He saw that the personal 
union of the two crowns under the same king was not enough. As 
long as England and Scotland remained two countries with diiSerent 
laws, institutions, and traditions, and even with different customs 
as to the succession, the feeble tie of a common monarch might be 
snapped at any moment. He therefore assumed the title of King 
of Great Britain, and strove to build np a single state out of the 
two very different lands over which he ruled. Though he had 
grown up to middle life as king of Scots, and in most ways never 
420 



I6i8.j JAMES I, 421 

ceased to be a thorough Scotchman, James's long experience made 
him realize how much better off was the powerful English monarch 
than the weak king of Scots, the puppet of his nobles and the 
Puritan clergy. His idea of union was, therefore, to make Scotland 
as much like England as possible, and his old subjects soon resented 
the way in which he preferred English to Scottish fashions. He 
set this poHcy to his successors, and all the Stewart kings more or 
less embroiled themselves with their own country in their efforts 
to bring English fashions into the northern realm. For this reason 
the Scots disliked further attempts at union. But the English 
were little better pleased with them. They were quite contented 
with things as they were, and had no love for change. More- 
over, they were suspicious lest a race of Scottish kings should 
upset the good old English constitution in favour of their northern 
feUow- countrymen and to the loss of the native-born EngKsli 
subjects. While, therefore, James, inspired by his solicitor-general. 
Sir Francis Bacon, hopefully anticipated the time when the two 
lands should have one parliament, one law, one Church, and one 
nation, his parliament looked with distrust on his plans. The result 
was that James only ventured to ask his parliament for a very 
little. He was content to demand that Englishmen and Scotchmeu 
should no longer be treated as foreigners in each other's country, 
and that there should be freedom of trade between the two 
nations. 

2. In 1607 the House of Commons rejected both these proposals. 
The only step towards union which James could secure from the 
English side was a decision of the judg-es that aU 
Scotsmen born after his accession to the EngUsh james's pro- 
throne possessed the fuU rights of English citizens, jeets for 

He had more success in assimilating Scottish institu- "^°f ^ ^°™" 

^ plete union. 

tions to those of England. In 1610 he restored bishops 
to the Scots Church, though they had little power. In 1618 he 
imposed on the Scots the Five Articles of Perth, wliich introduced 
into Scotland some of the ecclesiastical ceremonies and Church 
holidays wliich prevailed south of the Tweed. These measures 
excited deep antagonism among the fiercely Presbyterian Scots, 
With such strong suspicions on both sides of the border, it was 
easy to understand why a fuU union of England and Scotland was 
still a hundred years off. 

3. The moment of James's accession had witnessed the com- 
pletion of the Tudor conquest of Ireland, so that James ruled 
Ireland as fully as Great Britain, and was thus the first monarch 



422 



JAMES 1. 



[1607- 



of the three kingdoms. The Irish remained "bitterly discon- 
tented with English and Protestant rule, and were only kept 
down by main force. In 1607 the earl of Tyrone 
strove once more to attack the English power, and, 
failing ntterly, fled from Ireland. His estates and 
those of his friends were declared forfeited for treason, 
and in 1610 Sir Arthur Chichester, James's deputy, 
divided the forfeited lands among Eng-lish and Scottish settlers, 
and thus carried out the famous 'plantation of Ulster. 
This had more permanent success than the Elizabethan 
plantation of Mujister. Though the wild west of 
Ulster still remained fully Irish, eastern Ulster became 
the home of a vigorous and energetic English-speaking and 



The com- 
pletion of 
the eon- 
quest of 
Ireland. 



The Plan- 
tation of 
Ulster, 
1610. 




Emery Walker sc. 

The shaded part shows the Protestant districts 
in Ireland, which resulted from James I's. 
Plantations. 

IRELAND IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Protestant population. Henceforth the Ulster settlers remained 
as a Protestant garrison in Ireland. Though this immensely 



-1632.] JAMES I. * 423 

strengthened the English power, it brought new difficulties with 
it. The Irish problem became more complicated, since side by 
side with the old Catholic and Celtic Ireland a new Protestant 
and Saxon Ireland was created. Bitterly hating the aliens who 
persecuted their reKgion and robbed them of their lands, Celtic 
Ireland sullenly waited for the hour of vengeance. 

4. James i.'s reign saw the first establishment of new Englands 
beyond the sea, as well as extension of English influence over the 
thi-ee kingdoms of Britain. The impulse towards Beginnings 
expansion which had insx^ired both the Irish planta- of English 
tions, and the failures of Gilbert and Raleigh in eolonies. 
America, now led to the first successful establishment of Eng'lish 
colonies beyond the Atlantic. In 1607 Virginia was settled by a 
small band of emigrants, who named their first settle- plantation 
ment JaTnestown in honour of the English king. At of Virginia, 
first they suffered terribly from disease, famine, and ^607, 
the constant attacks of the Indian tribes, but these were successfully 
overcome, and as the colony grew in numbers and strength it 
received a free constitution with a House of Burgesses like the 
House of Commons at home. A few years later Lord Baltimore, a 
Catholic nobleman, established Maryland immediately 
to the north of Yirginia, receiving in 1632 a charter j^^ 1632. 
from Charles i., which made liim supreme lord of the 
whole settlement. Maryland was the first joQ^oprietary colony, 
controlled by a great landlord. In 1625 the settlement of Barbados 
was the first step towards the establishment of English plantations 
in the West India islands. The settlers were not willing to do 
hard work themselves. The land was divided into great estates 
and plantations, whose proprietors cultivated tobacco, sugar, and 
other products of warm climates. For long they had much 
difficulty in obtaining labour, but at last fell back upon the labour 
of negro slaves, imported from Africa and comiDeUed to work for 
their masters. 

5. Other colonies arose in the colder regions to the north of 

Yirgima, which received the name of New England. The first 

of these settlements owed its origin to a little band 

, . , ^ o T • J • Ml The plan- 

of Enghsh separatists, who, finding it impossible tstion 

to worship God after their own fashion in England, of New 

resolved to seek freedom in the wilderness beyond the ig2o-i629 

Atlantic. In 1620 a little band, afterwards called the 

Pilgrim Fathers, sailed in a small ship called the Mayflower from 

Southampton. They settled near Cape Cod, and called their new 



424 JAMES /. [1600- 

home FlymoutTi. Soon larger settlements arose round them, the first 
and chief of which was Massachusetts, established in 1629, with 
Boston as its capital. Many other small colonies were planted in 
New Eng-land under Charles i. The New England colonies formed 
a class by themselves, and were soon clearly marked off from the 
southern plantations. They became a land of yeoman proprietors, 
farmers, fishermen, and traders, with neither a wealthy planter 
aristocracy nor a large population of slaves. They Lived a 
free and strenuous but somewhat hard and narrow life, prizing 
their democratic institutions and their Puritan faith, and perse- 
outing those who did not hold their religion. In Massachusetts 
no one could be a citizen who was not a member of an Independent 
church ; but another of the colonies, E-hode Island, practised from 
the beginning complete religious toleration. Yirg-inia and the 
West India Islands generally accepted the doctrines and worship 
of the English Church. Their planter-aristocracies were quite 
as jealous of freedom as was the Puritan democracy of New 
Eng-land. Both types of colonies soon began to thrive exceedingly. 
By the middle of the seventeenth century their success ensured the 
extension of the English race and tongue over the greater part of 
the eastern seaboard of North America. It is through these first 
pioneers that the foundations of a world-wide " Grreater Britain '* 
were laid. 

6. James l.'s reign witnessed an expansion of English trade 

corresponding with the growth of English colonization. Here, as 

with the plantations, the EKzabethan impulse achieved 

The begin- ^^^ greatest results after the queen's death. After the 

ninsfs 01 . 

the East conquest of Portugal by Philip 11., the Dutch robbed 

India Com- the Spaniards of much that remained of Portuguese 

pany, . (.Qjj^merce and empire iii the East. Their success 

inspired English adventurers to follow in their footsteps, and in 

1600 Elizabeth gave a charter to the English JEast India Company, 

which at once entered into rivalry with the Dutch merchants. 

Soon commercial antagonism sharply divided two nations which 

common religion and common hostility to Spain had hitherto closely 

united. The struggle was sharpest in the archipelago of further 

India, then called the Spice Islands, because the centre of the 

The Am- lucrative spice trade. Its most striking incident was 

boyna the massacre by the Dutch, in 1623, of the Bnerlish 

^^/o'^'^^®' settlers in the little island of Amboyna. In India 

itself the English merchants soon obtained a stronger 

position than the Dutch. They obtained grants of factories or 



-i65i.] • JAMES I. 425 

trading settlements from tlie Mogul or Mohammedan emperors wlio 
in those days ruled over the greater part of India. The first of these 
to become important were Si(rat, set np in 1612, and Madras, 
established in 1639. Other English trading settlements were 
made on the west coast of Africa, where also Dutch competition 
was keen. After the Dutch settled at the Cape of Good Hope 
as a good halfway house to India, the English East India Company 
founded an intermediate station of its own in the island of 
St. Helena in 1651, Thus the same generation which saw the 
origin of our colonies saw the rise of our commerce with remote 
lands, and the faint beginnings of our modern empire in the 
East. For all these reasons, our history can no longer be limited to 
the story of th e British Islands after the accession of the Stewart 
kings. 

7. England itself saw great changes under Stewart rule. The 
land had outgrown the need for the Tudor despotism. The parKa- 
ment of the active and energetic England of these days 

was no longer content to follow the lead of the kings, stewards 
and thus the great event of the Stewart period is the and Parlia- 
century of struggle between the king and the House of n^e^^t* 
Commons, which only terminated when parliament had secured its 
control over the crown. The accession of a foreign race of kings 
with narrower sympathies, less knowledge of English ways, and 
less broad intelligence than the Tudors, precipitated and intensified 
the contest. Yet even if rulers as strong as Elizabeth had been 
given to England, the contest would have been inevitable. 

8. James i. was ill adapted to deal with the situation that he 
had to face in his new kingdom. He was able, well-educated, 
and the most scholarly king of his time. He was 

good tempered, kindly, and honestly loved peace and Character 
moderation. But he had formed all his habits before 
he came to England, and never really understood English ways. 
He was very conceited and obstinate, and was destitute of the 
royal bearing of his predecessor. Lazy, vacillating, and pro- 
crastinating, he preferred to live in retirement in the country, 
amusing himself with hunting and study, and loving to shift 
the hard work of government on to his favourites and ministers. 
Yet he was proud of his statecraft, and delighted to dogmatize 
on the divine right of kings and the sin of opposing the Lord's 
anointed. He was shrewd enough, however to take broader views 
of many questions than the majority of his subjects. Yet even 
when his policy was right he was unable to carry it out effectively. 



426 JAMES I, [1603- 

His worst fault was Ms incuralble habit of distinguisliiiig between 
his own interests and those of his subjects. 

9. James's general idea was to follow as closely as he could the 
policy of Elizabeth. But he neither fuUy understood his pre- 
R be t Cecil <i®c®ssor's aims, nor was he able to give effect to his 
and his intentions. He was wise enough, however, to continue 
enemies. -tJ^e ministers of Elizabeth in office, and Sir Robert 
Cecil, made earl of Salisbury in 1605, remained chief adviser to the 
crown, and carried on, until his death in 1612, the traditions of 
Elizabethan statecraft. Cecil's continuance in power drove his 
enemies into a series of plots to overthrow him. Chief among these 
was the Main Plot as it was called, whose instigator was Lord 
Cobham. Another conspiracy was the Bye Plot, a foolish scheme 
of a Roman Catholic priest named Watson, to keep James a 
prisoner until he gave freedom to the Catholics and made the 
plotters his chief advisers. Both designs were easily discovered, 
and the chief conspirators were punished. Among them was Sir 
Walter Raleigh, a known enemy of CecU, whose condemnation was 
only secured by very doubtful measures. Raleigh was not, however, 
executed, but kept a close prisoner in the Tower with the death 
sentence still hanging over his head. 

10. James's continuation of Elizabeth's policy provoked bitter 
discontent among both Puritans and Roman Catholics. The 
The HamD- Pn^^itans who had long suffered severely from Whit- 
ton Court gift's persecution, had hoped great things from a 
eonferenee, Presbyterian king. On his way to London, a large 

number of Puritan clergy presented to him what they 
called the Millenary Petition, which begged for a relaxation of the 
ceremonies so much disliked by the Puritans. James fell in with 
their wishes so far as to hold a conference between the two parties 
in the church at Hampton Court, in 1604. Proud of his theo- 
logical learning*, the king took a leading part in the debates 
and showed bitter hostility to the Puritans when he realized that 
they wanted to introduce the Scottish system into England. 
" Scottish Presbytery," he declared, " agreeth as well with monarchy 
as Grod with the devil." Under such circumstances, nothing im- 
portant came of the Hampton Court conference. A few changes 
were made in the Prayer-book, but they gave no satisfaction to the 
Puritans. The only solid result was the ordering of a new trans- 
lation of the Bible. Tliis led to the Authorized Version of 1611^ 
which soon, through its merits, became the single translation used 
by English-speaking Protestants. 



-i6o5.] JAMES I. 427 

11. When Wliitgift died in 1604, Bancroft, who was bishop of 
London, and had taken the chief part in opposing the Puritans at 
Hampton Court, "became his successor. He was one of ArehbishoDs 
the first Protestant divines to teach that a Church Bancroft 
without hishops was no Church at all, and he dealt ^"^ Abbot. 
as severely with the Puritans as Whitgif t had done. His successor. 
Archbishop Abbot (1610 to 1633), inclined to Puritan views, but 
he gradually lost all influence at court, and the main current of 
Church opinion was setting steadily against him. A new school 
of churchmanship now arose, whose leader was the saintly BiShop 
Andrewes of Winchester, and whose most active partisan was 
William Laud, who became bishop of London. They were caUed 
Arminiaiis, because they followed the Dutch professor Arminius 
in rejecting the Calvinistic doctrine of jpredestination. They also 
believed in the necessity for bishops, held the doctrine of the Real 
Presence, loved elaborate ritual in divine worship, and claimed 
continuity with the Church of the Middle Ages. The rise of this 
school further embittered the lot of the Puritans. 

12. The Roman Catholics expected great things from the son 
of Mary Stewart, and James, who was more tolerant than most 
rulers of his time, made himself unpopular with rig-id j, cun- 
Protestants by his unwillingness to send priests to powder 
the scaffold. He made no attempt, however, to alter Plot» 1605. 
the severe laws ag-ainst the Catholics, and many still suffered for 
their faith. In despair of lightening their lot by peaceful means, 
a band of Catholic enthusiasts turned to treason. Headed by 
Robert Catesby, a Warwickshire g'entleman, a knot of recusants 
formed a plot to blow up the king and parliament with gunpowder 
on the occasion of the meeting of parliament on November 5, 1605. 
Guy Fawkes, an old soldier in the Spanish service, became the 
chief instrument of the conspirators. Some cellars were hired 
tinder the House of Lords ; there explosives were liidden, which 
Fawkes was to fire when the king opened the Houses on November 5. 
At the same moment the Catholic gentry of the Midlands were 
to be collected at Dunchurch, near Rugby, on the pretext of a hunt, 
in the hope that on the news of the London catastrophe they would 
seize the king's daughter Elizabeth, who was living in the neigh- 
bourhood, make her queen, and bring her up as a Catholic. Cecil's 
spies unearthed the plot before the meeting of parliament. On 
November 4 tlie cellars were searched, the powder discovered, and 
Fawkes was taken prisoner and severely tortured. Catesby escaped 
to Warwickshire, hoj).ing still to induce the huntsmen of Dunchurch 



428 JAMES I. [1604- 

to rise in rebeUion. Failing altogetlier in this object, Catesby 
and a few friends fled furtber, to Holbeacb in Staffordshire, where 
they were soon snrroimded, and, after a hard fight in whic^ Catesby 
was killed, captnred. Besides Fawkes, and the actual conspirators, 
the persons executed for complicity included Henry G-arnett, the 
'provincial or head of the English Jesuits. The chief evidence 
against him was that he had been told of the conspiracy under the 
seal of confession. The main result of the Gunpowder Plot, as it 
was called, was to frighten the king into carrying out the recusancy 
laws with more severity than ever. 

13. James found great difficulties in dealing with his parlia- 
ments, l^ever practising the severe economy of Elizabeth, he was 

J much more frequently compelled to ask parliament for 
his Parlia- money, and showed a disposition to bargain with the 
ments. Commons, wMch was fatal to his dignity and authority. 

The Commons severely criticized his harshness to the Puritans, and 
complained that his foreign policy was not sufficiently Protestant. 
They distrusted his great plans for change, such as the proposed 
union with Scotland, and resented his habit of lecturing them on 
his own dignity and their insignificance. The result was that he 
was constantly involved in petty disputes with the Commons. 

14. James' first parliament met in 1604, and continued its 
sessions till 1611. In the very first session there were hot disputes 

about privilege of parliament, and the Commons, in- 
The New stead of giving James a subsidy, offered him plenty of 

and the unpalatable advice. There were worse troubles when 

Great Con- James, encouraged by a decision of the judges that he 
^ ^ ' * might alter taxes on exports and imports without re- 

course to parliament by virtue of his right to regulate trade, issued 
what was called the Boole of Rates, whereby, of his own mere 
motion, he largely added to the customs- duties. In 1610 parliament 
denounced the New Impositions, as the taxes were called, as a 
violation of its rights. James and Salisbury chose this moment 
for submitting to the Commons an. elaborate scheme called the 
Great Contract, which was proposed to resign the feudal revenue 
if the king's debts were paid and his income increased by £200,000 
a year. After much time consumed in haggling about details, 
James dismissed Parliament in 1611 without having obtained its 
consent to his proposals. 

15. For three years James manasred to get on without parlia- 
mentary grants. He was so poor that he was forced to offer the 
new hereditary title of baronet to any gentleman of position who 



-i6i4.] JAMES I. 429 

would lend him a thousand pounds, and in 1614 was again com- 
pelled to face the estates. Before parliament met James nego- 
tiated with some prominent members of the last ^j^g Addled 
House of Commons, who promised that if he would Parliament, 
make concessions and take their advice, they would 1614, 
keep the Commons in a good temper and persuade it to make 
grants. Those who made this bargain with the king were called 
the Undertahers. They found, however, that parliament, when it 
met, regarded them as traitors and repudiated their guidance, and 
took up so fierce an attitude that James dissolved the House before 
it had passed an act or made a grant. For this reason the parlia- 
ment of 1614 was called in derision the Addled Parliament. After 
this James did not venture to summon another parKament for 
seven years. 

16. During this period many great changes happened. Salis- 
bury died in 1612, and the same year saw the death of the 
king's eldest son, Henry, prince of Wales, a youth James's 

of promise, whose younger brother Charles became family and 
prince of Wales in Ms place. James was so jealous favourites, 
of yielding up authority, and so conceited with himself, that he 
thought there was no need for him to have a chief minister 
to replace Cecil. But he was not hard working enough to control 
the state as Elizabeth had done, and was so easy-going and 
good-natured that he soon felt the need of a confidential adviser, 
who, without having a policy of his own, would save the king 
trouble by looking after details and taking unpleasant burdens 
on his shoulders. The result was that royal favourites soon began 
to wield a dangerous and discreditable influence. 

17. The first of James's personal favourites to win much favour 
was E/obert Ker, a good-looking Scot from a fierce Border 
stock, who, after Salisbury's death, became Yiscount 
Rochester, and wielded an immense influence over Ms 

master, Ker was a sulky, obstinate, and ignorant fellow, so dull 
that he was obliged to depend upon the advice of a clever, arro- 
gant man- of -letters named Sir Thomas Overbury. Rochester's 
wife was, however, an enemy of Overbury, and contrived to get 
Mm shut up in prison, where her agents put Mm to death by 
poison. Now made Earl of Somerset, the favourite remained 
at the height of Ms j)Ower for two years more, though he grew 
so insolent and ill temj)ered that even James became tired of him. 
At last the confession of one of Lady Somerset's accomplices 
revealed to the world the true story of Overbury's death. Both 



430 JAMES 1. [1604- 

earl and countess were tried iDefore the House of Lords, and 
condemned to death, the countess as a murderess, and her husband 
as an accessory to her crime. James pardoned the guilty pair 
their lives, but their faU from power was complete and final. 
The hideous revelations at the trial did James himself much harm, 
though he was guiltless of anything worse than weakness and 
credulity. 

18. James soon found a new favourite in George YiUiers, the 
son of a Leicestershire knight, a proud, quick-witted, handsome 

man, rather shallow and vain, whose head was turned 
Villiers. ^J ^^ success, and who soon became unpopular through 

his ostentation and overbearing pride. The' king's 
favour made him lord high admiral, and first earl and then duke 
of Buckingham. All seekers after court favour found it necessary 
to procure his support, and the gravest and wisest of the king's 
counsellors owed their advancement to Buckingham's goodwill 
rather than to their own merits. Laud drove Abbot from James' 
favour, and with Buckingham's help won the old king over to the 
Arminians. The great lawyer and brilliant writer and thinker, 
Francis Bacon, tardily attained the position of chancellor through 
the patronage of the favourite. 

19. Foreign policy, always important, now became the chief 
concern of James and his ministers. James's general ideas as to 
James's English foreign policy were sound and wise, but, as 
fopeign usual, he was not able to carry them out in practice. 
policy. Like Elizabeth, he loved peace, and thought that each 
nation ought to settle its religion for itself, so that he was adverse 
to the popular idea that it was the business of good Protestants 
like the English to wage war against Spain as the chief enemy of 
the faith. In 1604 James made peace with Spain, and even sought 
an alliance with her, though he also strove to continue his pre- 
decessor's friendly relations with Henry iv. of France. In 1610 
Henry iv. was murdered by a Catholic fanatic, and during the 
minority of his son and successor, Louis xiii., Henry's widow ruled 
France in the interests of Spain and the strict Catholic party. 
Thus Spain got back something of the position she had lost. 

20. Spain wished for English support, and James thoi^ght it 
would be an excellent way of proving the real friendship that 
existed between the two peoples if his son Charles, prince of 
Wales, were married to the Infanta Maria, the daughter of Philip 
ni. and the sister of his successor, Philip iv. !N"egotiations for 
this match were begun in 1616, but almost at the same tirae 



-i6i8.] JAMES I, 431 

James's eager desire for money led him to listen to a proposal quite 
incompatible with any real Spanish alliance. Sir Walter Haleigb 
had ia his early years made a voyage to Guiana, and ^ \^-vW> 
brooded in his weary imprisonment over the fancied last voyage 
splendours of that land, where he believed there existed ^f^^ execu- 
gold-mines of nnheard-of richness. He now offered, if jg|g 
released from the ToAver, to lead an expedition to gold- 
mines in Gruiana, whose produce would make James the wealthiest 
prince in Europe. The glittering bait was easily swallowed by the 
king, and in 1617 Raleigh was allowed to sail to South America 
in quest of the promised mine. He was told, however, that he 
must on no account molest the Spaniards, the king's allies, and 
must prosecute his quest entirely by peaceful means. Raleigh 
readily agreed to aU this ; but it was quite impossible to him to 
fulfil his promise, since the Spaniards claimed the whole of the 
region that he soug'ht to explore, and looked upon his expedition 
as piracy. Moreover, when South America was reached, the old 
spirit of lawless adventure made light of Spanish oxDposition. 
Raleigh sent his ships up the river Orinoco, and when a Spanish 
settlement blocked the way, his captains attacked and burnt it 
as Drake or Hawkins would have done. But the Spaniards, soon 
proved stronger than Raleigh's cowardly and mutinous followers, 
who, in their fear of the Spaniards, forced their leader to sail 
home to England. Long before that the loud complaiats of the 
Spaniards had reached James's ears. Gondomar, their ambassador, 
demanded that Raleig'h should be surrendered to Spain, to be tried 
as a pirate, and James was so afraid of provoking the wrath of 
his aUy that he thought the easiest way out of the difficulty was to 
put Raleigh to death under the old sentence of 1603. Tliis satisfied 
the Spanish complaints, but English opinion lamented the death 
of the high-souled adventurer as that of a hero sacrificed by his 
cowardly king to gratify the bitter hatred of the Spaniards. 

21. In 1618 a great religious war broke out in Germany, and 
soon spread over aU. Central Europe. Lasting until 1648, it was 
called the Thirty Years' War. It had its roots in the . 

quarrels between the Catholics and Calvinists in Ger- ning of the 
many, which had long threatened the peace of that Thirty 
country. Its imiAediate origin was the revolt of the j|^g^ ^^' 
Bohemian Protestants from their new king, the 
emperor Ferdinand 11., the head of the house of Austria, and a 
bigotted Roman Catholic. Thereupon the Bohemians chose as 
their king Frederick, the Elector Palatine of the Rhine, the leader 



432 JAMES L [1622- 

of tlie German Calvinists, and closely connected with England by 
reason of Ms marriage to the Lady Elizabeth, James's only 
daughter. It was hoped that James, who was devoted to his 
child, wonid assist his son-in-law against Ferdinand ; but James 
hated war, and above all religions war, and gave Frederick no 
help. Under these , circumstances, Frederick could not long main- 
tain liimseK. He was first driven from Bohemia, and then from 
his own hereditary dominions. Though the more strenuous Grerman 
Protestants supported him, the only result of this was to make the 
war more general. Bit by bit he lost the Palatinate as well as 
Bohemia, and his expulsion meant the subjection of Germany to 
the (triumphant Catholics. 

22. James had not countenanced Frederick's aggression in 
Bohemia, and English Protestant zeal had regarded his holding 

back another proof of his cowardice and want of 

efforts to faith in Protestantism. But the same desire to leave 

restore the things as they were which had made him reluctant 

Eleetor ^q lielp his son-in-law in Bohemia, rendered him very 

Palatine . ... 

1622-1623. anxioiis to prevent the elector being deprived of his 

hereditary possessions. English volunteers were per- 
mitted to join Frederick's army ; but even now James shirked 
strong measures. He believed that the best way to set things 
straight was for him to use his influence over his Spanish allies, 
and thus bring about Frederick's restoration by peaceful means. 
It was, however, absurd to think that the German Catholics would 
give up their conquests to please the Spaniards, even if the 
Spaniards were willing to ask them to do so. As a matter of fact, 
the Spaniards had no intention of procuring the Elector Palatine's 
return. They used James as a tool, and encouraged him to resume 
the negotiations for the marriage of his son with the Infanta, 
which had broken down on the previous occasion. 

23. Spain was delighted to delay matters by treating with Eng- 
land for the prince's hand. But it gradually became clear that Philip 
_ ., „ would not really accept any marriage scheme unless 
the Spanish James promised to give such freedom of worship to 
marriage, his Catholic subjects as the English parliament would 

never allow. It suited the Spaniards' game, however, 
to waste time on trivial details, until Buckingham, who ruled 
Charles as absolutely as his father, persuaded the prince of Wales 
that the best way to settle the question one way or the other was 
for him to go to Spain and woo the Infanta in person. Accord- 
ingly, in 1623 the prince and his friend made their way to Madrid, 



I62I.1 JAMES 2. 433 

only to tiiifl that the diplomatic difficulties remained as great as 
ever, and that Spanish etiquette and the Infanta's dislike of a 
heretic wooer put fresh obstacles in his way. At last he realized 
that the Spaniards were playing with him, whereupon he went 
home, brimful of indig-nation and eag-er to persuade his timid 
father to take up arms to restore the Elector Palatine, since the 
last efforts of diplomacy to effect this object had so sig-naUy failed. 
Charles and Bucking-ham revenged themselves on Spain by 
negotiating an alliance with France, which had once more 
begun to take up a line of its own. It was agreed that Charles 
should marry Henrietta Maria, sister of King Louis xiii. This 
proposal was less hated by the English than the Spanish match, 
but any marriage of the heir-apparent with a Roman Catholic was 
disliked. Moreover, the French proved ineffective allies, and 
James's first efforts to send help to his son-in-law were sorry 
faihu'es. 

24, Foreign complications again necessitated recourse to parlia- 
ment, and James twice more met his estates in 1621 and 1624, His 
third parliament in the former year assembled at the , , 
time when James's slackness in helping Frederick third Par- 
made him unpopular among militant Protestants, liament, 
James asked for a large supply, though he made it 

clear that he would not fight if he could help it. He was answered 
by the Commons refusing to grant him a subsidy until their chief 
grievances had been redressed. Conspicuous among these were 
monopolies, which had become even more burdensome than in the 
last years of Elizabeth. The indignant Commons especially com- 
plained of a monopoly for licensing ale-houses, which the monopo- 
lists, headed by Sir Giles Mompesson, had used so selfishly as 
to encourage drunkenness. Mompesson fled from the country, but 
could not escape condemnation. 

25. The ministers of the crown were also signalled out for 
attack, chief among them being the lord chancellor Bacon, a 
stout friend of monopolies. Some aggrieved suitors jj^^ ^^^j. » 
in the Court of Chancery complained that Bacon had Bacon, 
accepted bribes, and that he had given decisions 1621. 
against them. Thereupon the Commons sent up to the liords the 
complaints made by the suitors, that they might be judicially in- 
vestigated. This was the practical revival of the late mediaeval 
custom of impeacli'ment, whereby the Commons presented a public 
offender to be tried by the Lords as judges. Bacon did not 
seriously defend himself. He declared that he had never given 

2f 



434 JAMES L [1625. 

corrupt judgments, though he acknowledged that he had fallen 
into the evil system then usual of accepting presents from litigants. 
He was condemned, deprived of office, and for a short time im- 
prisoned; but James soon released the fallen statesman from the 
Tower. Bacon died five years afterwards, a disappointed man, 
though he found in his release from office opportunity for working 
out some parts of the great schemes for building up a new philo- 
sophy which had long amused his leisure. 

26. Both in the matter of the monopolists and Bacon, James 
had given way to the Commons. After granting a subsidy, thero 
was a short prorogation until the autumn, when the 
fourth Pap- same House reassembled. The renewal of the Spanish 
liament, negotiations disgusted the Commons, who sent a 

death ^1625 ^'^^l^^ist to James that he should marry his son to 
a Protestant. James told them it was no business 
of theirs, but they replied that they had a right to give advice on 
any subject. Thereupon James angrily dismissed them. When 
he next met a parliament in 1624, the breach with Spain had made 
him popular, but even now there were disputes as to the way the 
war should be carried on, and the Commons showed their resolu- 
tion by impeaching the lord treasurer Middlesex, and passing an 
act declaring that monopolies were already illegal. On March 27, 
1625, the old king died. 



CHAPTER II 
CHARLES I. (1625-1649) 

Chief Dates : 

1625. Accession of Charles i. 

1628. The Petition of Right. 

1629. Dissolution of Charles' third Parliament. 
1633. Laud archbishop of Canterbun'. 

1638. Hampden's Case and the Scottish National Covenant. 

1640. Meeting of the Long Parliament. 

1641. Execution of Strafford and the Irish Rebellion. 

1642. Battle of Edge Hill. 
164 v> Battle of Newbury. 

1644. Battle of Marston Moor. 

1645. Battle of Naseby. 

1648. Second Civil War. 

1649. Execution of Charles i. 

1. Charles, prince of "Wales, became Charles i. at the age of 
twenty-five. Handsome, dignified, and serious, he far surpassed 
his father in all the external graces of his station, but 
he was without James's shrewdness and wide know- of claries L 
ledge. Though carefully brought up, he had not very 
great ability, and was curiously slow in thought and action. Ho 
could neither think nor speak clearly, and, unable to understand 
any one else's standpoint, he lived in a dream-world of his own. 
He was proud, obstinate, and unyielding; yet he had a great 
difficulty in making up his mind as to any decided course of action. 
His piety, gravity, love of culture, and care for his friends attracted 
the devotion of his personal followers, but he was out of sympathy 
with his people as a whole. His ministers complained that he 
would never yield them his full confidence, and that it was im- 
possible to tie him down to any fixed policy. His devotion to 
Buckingham made his people regard him with distrust. His 
wife, Henrietta Maria of France, was frivolous and intriguing, 
and her great influenc3 over him was by no means exercised 
for good. 

2. When Charles became king, England was already at war 



^■^6 CHARLES L [1625- 

with Spain. He was so anxious to restore tlie Elector Palatine 
and to fight the Spaniards, that he promised large subsidies to 
_, his uncle, Christian of Denmark, who agreed to in- 

with Spain vade Grermany and revive the Protestant cause. The 
and ^ alliance with France would, as he hoped, help both 

first Par- ^^^ Spanish and his German designs. Knowing that 
liament, a Protestant war against Spain and the German 

1625, Catholics was popular, Charles reasonably expected 

that parliament would give him sufficient supplies to enable 
him to carry out his comprehensive designs with vigour. But 
when parliament met in 1625, it refused to make substantial 
grants ujiless Bucking'ham were removed from his counsels, and 
showed an unexpected want of sympathy for his Protestant foreign 
policy. Charles thought that the Commons had played him false, 
and angrily dismissed them. Their claim to withhold supplies 
until his advisers were of their liking seemed to him to be a wanton 
attack on the king's right to rule the country as he would. 

3. It was clear that Charles was now likely to be involved in a 
fierce struggle with his parliaments. A prudent statesman would 
Home and ^^^^ abandoned his foreign designs in the face of the 
foreign attitude of the Commons. Anyhow, he would have 
policy. chosen between fighting parliament and fighting the 
Spaniards. Charles was too confused a thinker to grasp this 
point, and resolved to go on with his war whether the Commons 
helped him or not. This was a course certain to make Charles 
unsuccessful in both struggles. 

4. The war itself was mismanaged, and Charles's finances made 
fighting on an adequate scale impossible. The French gave him little 

help, and an expedition sent from England under 

The Freneh Edward Cecil, afterwards Lord Wimbledon, to attack 

war and ^ t t 1 j» i a 

Charles's Cadiz, and cut ore the American treasure fleet on its 

second way to Spain, proved a lamentable failure. Before 

1626^™^" ' -^^^S" Charles quarrelled with France as well as Spain, 

and in 1626 was involved in hostilities with his 

brother-in-law. Under these circumstances he was again forced 

to summon the estates. But Charles's second parliament, which 

met in 1626, was as uncompromising as its predecessor. Led by 

Sir John Eliot, an eloquent Cornish gentleman, the" Commons 

resolved to impeach Buckingham, and Charles soon found that 

the only way to save his favourite was to dissolve parliament. 

5. Charles's foreign policy was already a complete failure. He 
could do no harm to Suain, and the cause of the Elector Palatine 



-i628.] CHARLES 1. 437 

became hopeless when Clu'istian of Denmark was utterly beaten 
by the German Catholics in 1626. Christian bitterly complained 
that the EngHsh had broken their promise to help 
him with men and money, but Charles was quite un- -^J^^ ^^T 
able to redeem his word. Nevertheless he now planned Darnell's 
an expedition against France, where the revolt of the ^^^^' 
Huguenots of La Rochelle, then the chief seaport 
of western France, gave him an opportunity of winning allies 
among liis enemies' subjects. As the Commons would not make 
him grants, Charles sought to provide money for the expedition 
by levying a forced loan upon all liis subjects. The legality of 
this was more than doubtful, for an act of Richard III. liad 
prohibited all benevolences or compulsory gifts to the crown. 
The king's lawyers argued, however, that there was no law that 
prevented Charles borrowing his subjects' money, and great 
pains were taken to force every substantial Englishman to 
hand over to Charles the sum which he fixed should be lent to 
him. Soldiers were billeted on those who refused to pay, and 
.commissions of martial law issued which soug-ht to withdraw the 
trial of offences wrought by such soldiers from the ordinary law 
courts. Many persons, including Eliot himself, who refused to 
comply with the king's orders, were put into prison. Among* the 
prisoners were five knights, who resolved to test the lawfulness of 
the king's demand by requesting* their release from prison by what 
was called a writ of habeas corpus. By tliis the gaoler was com- 
pelled to produce the body of the prisoner before the judg-es in 
court, and to specify the ofPence for which he was detained. If 
the judges thought that the prisoner was unlawfully kept in jjrison, 
it was their duty to order his release. In DarnelVs case, as this 
case was called from tlie name of one of the five knights, the gaoler 
returned the answer to the writ that the captives were detained by 
the special command of the king. The judges thereupon ordered 
their recommittal to gaol, thus j^ractically deciding in the king's 
favour and admitting that the king could imjjrison his subjects 
at his discretion. So little success attended Charles's efforts even 
after tliis, that in despair he set the five knights free and summoned 
another parliament. He at length understood that the only way 
to help La RocheUe was to obtain a parliamentary grant. 

6. Charles's third parliament assembled in 1628. Besides Sir 
Jolin Eliot, Sir Thomas Wentworth, a Yorkshire landlord, was 
conspicuous among- the leaders of tlie Commons. Under tlieir 
guidance tlie Commons showed a resolute determination to defend 



438 CHARLES L [1628- 

the liberty and the purses of Englishmen from Charles's attacks. 
Wentworth had no wish to diminish the king's authority, but he 

distrusted Buckingham and wished to drive him from 
ti^^d^p''^- power. He proposed that a bill should be passed 
liament and enacting that in the future forced loans and ini- 
the Petition prisonment without legal warrant should be restrained, 
1628 ' ^^^ Charles resented the proposal as an encroachment 

on his prerogative, and Eliot did not tliink it went 
far enough. In the end Eliot's counsels prevailed over those of 
Wentworth, and the Commons sent up to the king a document 
called the Petition of Right, which declared that the recent acts 
of Charles were already against the law, and in particular de- 
nounced as illegal the levying of gifts, loans, or taxes without 
parliamentary consent, the imprisonment of persons without cause 
shown, the billeting^ of soldiers and sailors on householders against 
their wills, and the issuing of commissions of martial law. 

7. At first Charles returned an evasive answer to the Petition 
of Eight, but Commons and Lords alike urged that he should say 

Cha le<5 ^^^ ^^ ""^^^ ^^^ ^^® Commons proposed to renew the 

accepts the impeachment of Buckingham. Fear for his friend 
petition, gQQji compelled Charles to yield the royal assent to the 
petition. Parliament then made him a large grant 
of money, and went home for the holidays, conscious tihat it had 
at last won a complete triumph over the crown. 

8. The subsidy of the Commons at last made the expedition to 
La RocheUe possible. It was high time, for Louis xiii.'s troops 
Murder of ^^^ besieged the Protestant stronghold, and unless 
Bucking- the English sent a relieving force its capitulation 
ham, 1628. could not be long delayed. Buckingham, who as 
lord admiral was to command the fleet, went down to Portsmouth 
to hasten the preparations. There he was murdered by a fanatic 
named Felton, whose motive, however, was private spite, not political 
animosity. Buckingham was so unpopular that the mob made a 
hero of the murderer. Eew save Charles lamented the dead 
favourite. His removal did not, however, result in any improvement 
in the relations between Charles and his subjects. The king's 
policy remained the same, and the indignation which had hitherto 
fallen on the duke now fell directly upon the monarch. 

9. In 1629 Charles's third parliament met for a second session, 
and, despite the Petition of E-ight, began to attack the king more 
fiercely than ever. The Commons complained that Charles stiU 
levied some customs duties, called tunnage and poundage, which his 



-i629.] CHARLES 2. ' 439 

first parliament, rejecting* the custom of earlier times wliicli voted 
the king" tunnage and poundag-e for life, had Only granted him 
for a single year. Charles had thrown into prison 
a member of the House of Commons who had refused of Charles's 
to pay this tax, and the Commons now said that this third Par- 
was an attack on the privilege of parliament to he '^^^^®"^' 
exempt from arrest. Moreover, Charles had recently 
promoted to bishoprics and other ecclesiastical preferment divines 
who belonged to the Arminian party, wliicli was so distasteful 
to the Puritan Commons. There was soon so complete a breach 
that the king- resolved to prorogue parliament. The Commons 
shut the door of the House in the face of the king's messenger, 
and two members, Holies and Valentine, held down in his chair the 
timid Speaker, who had soug-ht to end the sitting. Amidst stormy 
scenes the Commons voted, on Eliot's motion, that all who intro- 
duced Arminianism, or broug'ht in innovations in religion, or paid 
tonnage and poundage without parliamentary grant, were traitors 
to the Commonwealth. Then the door was oi)ened, and the king's 
messenger admitted. The Commons streamed out to receive notice 
that their session was prorogued, and a few days later parliament 
was dissolved. Eliot, as the ring-leader, was thrown into the 
Tower, where he died three years later of consumjition, aggravated 
by the rigour of his imprisonment. 

10. The first period of Charles's reign ends with the dissolution 
of his third parliament. The second comprises the eleven years 
from 1629 to 1640, during which Charles managed to ^. . , 
carry on the government without summoning a new arbitrary 

one. Five vears of strife had shown that the claims rule, 1629- 

1 fS4in 
of the crown and of parliament were incompatible with 

each other. The Commons were no longer content to accept 
the position which had satisfied them under the Tudors. They 
now demanded supremacy in the state, for they required that the 
king should change his ministers whenever the Commons were 
displeased with them. Though the Commons declared that they 
were only following up ancient precedents, Charles can hardly be 
blamed for resenting their interference as a new and revolutionary 
pretension. His predecessors had governed England as they 
would, and now parliament sought to make his government de- 
pendent upon itself. Neither king nor Commons quite saw the 
real issue. The real truth was that the country had outgrown the 
old constitution, and that the future could only be settled when it 
was seen whether king or parliament was tho stronger. Two 



440 CHARLES I. [1629- 

issues were alone possible. If Charles could do without parliaments 
lie could make himself a despot Kke his brother-in-law Louis xiii. 
If parliament could beat the king, then the strong- monarchy of 
the Tudors was dead, and the king must henceforth content him- 
self with a mere shadow of his former power. But Charles went 
on blundering" in the old ways, and even during those eleven years 
never strove to make himself strong and popular, so that the people 
might trust him rather than the Commons. 

11. Charles's first efforts were now to raise enough money to 
be able to live without parliamentary grants. With this object he 
, practised the greatest economy in all his expenses. He 

expedients ^t last saw how impossible it was to fight foreign 
for raising nations without parliamentary help, and concluded 
money, peace with both Spain and France, thus abandoning 

the unlucky Elector Palatine to his fate. Meanwhile the thirty 
years' strugg-le still continued in Germany, when first Gustavus 
Adolphus of Sweden, and afterwards Louis xiii. of France and his 
great minister Eichelieu, stepped in to save the Protestants from 
destruction. Peace was not made until 1648. Even when at peace 
Charles found himself hardly pressed to obtain a revenue. He- 
dared not openly break the law and raise taxes of his own authority, 
but he sought to evade the spirit of the law in aU sorts of under- 
hand ways. His chief care was to revive obsolete royal rig-hts, by 
which a little money might be made. Thus he increased the 
customs duties, because as king he had the right to regulate trade, 
and on the same ground continued to levy tannage and poundage. 
He renewed an old custom, called distraint of Tcnighthood, by which 
the king could fine all gentlemen of landed property who had 
neg'lected to get themselves dubbed knig'hts. He strove to increase 
the limits of the royal forests after the fashion of the ISTorman 
kings. Above all, he revived an ancient right, whereby in ancient 
times the different maritime districts had been required to provide 
the king- with ships, or had been forced to pay instead a money 
composition, called ship Tnoney, with wliich tlie king 

Ship might construct vessels for himself. There was, in- 

money. i 1 i » . 

deed, urgent need for increasing the royal navy, and 

Charles honestly spent the money he thus got in building ships 

to protect the shores and commerce of England. He was so 

encouraged by the success of his scheme, that he soon extended 

ship money from the coast region to the inland counties. It 

thus became practically a new tax levied without parliamentary 

grant. 



-1638.] CHARLES I. ^^I 

12. The old opponents of Charles in parliament were much 
disg-usted with ship money, and John Hampden, an able and 
wealthy Buckinghamshire gentleman, a former member 

of the House of Commons, and a close friend of Sir "^^rfooP 

C3.se, 1d3o. 

John EHot, refused to pay his quota of the sum 
demanded from Buckinghamshire to equip a new sliip for the king. 
In 1638 his case was tried before all the judges, who decided by a 
majority in favour of the legality of the tax. But Hamjiden's 
resistance focussed the popular opposition to Charles's pitiful 
financial expedients. Henceforth ship money was paid with in- 
creasing reluctance, and dislike to the king's arbitrary and incom- 
petent government became widely spread. 

13. Charles's ecclesiastical policy had still more share in 
making his rule odious than his attempts to raise money. Even 
more than Elizabeth and James i., Charles showed Charles's 
liimself a bitter enemy of the Puritans, whose cause eeclesias- 
was the more odious to him since it was so popular tical policy, 
with the House of Commons. A friend and disciple of Laud, 
Charles was a sincere Anninian, and in full sympathy with the 
new school whose affinities with the Church of the Middle Ages 
made them so antipathetic to the Puritan Calvinists. Apart from 
theological preference, however, Charles trusted the Arminian 
clergy because they were always on the side of the monarchy, and 
ever anxious to magnify the sacred character and divine commission 
of a crowned and anointed king. In 1628 he made Laud bishop 
of London, and in 1633, when Archbishop Abbot died, raised him 
to the see of Canterbury. Throughout all these years Laud was 
Charles's most trusted adviser. 

14. The new archbishop was a man of learning, high character, 

and wonderful energy. He was sincerely anxious to improve the 

condition of the Church, which was still full of abuses Archbishop 

and laxity. But he was narrow-minded, meddlesome, Laud and 

and wanting- iu tact, and as incapable as Charles him- ^^^ Puri- 

t<£ins 
self of understanding the temper of people who differed 

from liimself. His respect for antiquity and his martinet's sense 

of discipline made Laud regard rigid conformity and unity in 

ceremonies as equally important with the maintenance of morality 

and religion. Under Abbot the Puritan clergy had been permitted 

to be somewhat lax in regard to ceremonies, and Laud now made 

it his chief care to estabKsh a higher standard. The nonconforming 

clergy were ruthlessly driven from their cures, and severity 

uaturally added considerably to tlie hitherto scanty ranks of the 



442 CHARLES I. [1629- 

separatists. Preachers were forced to read Common Prayer 
before giving their sermons, and even foreign Protestants were 
compelled to use the Prayer-book. It was required that the 
commnnion tables should be placed at the east end of the churches, 
and fenced with rails to keep them from profanation. Puritans, who 
regarded Sunday as a Christian sabbath, were scandalized when 
Laud caused to be read in churches a proclamation recognizing 
lawful sports, such as archery and dancing, after service on Sunday. 
The indignant Puritans were convinced that their enemy was 
aiming, in league with the Roman Catholics, at the subversion of 
Protestantism. The Catholic surroundings of the queen, even the 
tolerance that refused to butcher Catholic priests as Elizabeth had 
done, were regarded as further proofs of the disloyalty of king 
and archbishop to the E-eformation. 

15. For a time all opposition was stilled. Laud strove to revive 
and extend the power of the Church courts, which continued to 
The victims ^^^^^i^e intolerable tyranny over all men. Great 
of Charles's offenders were punished by the court of High Gom- 
policy. mission. It was by extraordinary courts of this type 

that Charles as well as Laud found their chief means of enforcing 
obedience. The Star Chamber made itself odious by the severity 
of its punishments, the secrecy of its proceedings, and its absolute 
deference to the wishes of the government. A Scottish physician, 
named Alexander Leighton, was imprisoned, flogged, and cropped 
of his ears for writing a book against bishops. William Prynne, 
a learned lawer and antiquary, was put in the pillory, mutilated, 
and imprisoned for libelling the queen, because in writing a book 
against stage plays he had reflected on the moral character of 
actresses, and the queen was fond of acting in masques. 

15. Laud believed that he had restored the Church to the great 
position it had lost at the Reformation. As in the Middle Ages, 
the clergy began to hold the highest offices of state, 
Wentworth ^^^ Juxon, bishop of London, a college friend and 
close ally of Laud, was made lord high treasurer. 
Among the lay allies of Laud, Sir Thomas Wentworth, now Lord 
Wentworth, was by far the ablest. We have seen how Wentworth 
had had something to do with the passing of the Petition of Right 
and the attack on Buckingham. After Buckingham's death, how- 
ever, he abandoned his old associates and joined the court party. 
He was no mere aj)ostate, as has sometimes been thought. He had 
always upheld the prerogative, for, like Bacon, he believed that he 
would be more likely to secure the strong government and 



-1637.] CHARLES I. 443 

comprehensive reforms that he loved from an enlightened king 
than from the conservative and puritanical House of Commons. 
Wentworth, however, did not fully enjoy Charles's confidence, for 
the king was too half-hearted and vacillating for so thorough- 
going «, minister. He employed Wentworth first as president of 
the council of the north and afterwards as deputy of Ireland. In 
the latter ofiice Wentworth showed extraordinary vigour and 
energy, ruling Ireland firmly but rougldy, maintaining peace, 
and improving its agriculture, trade, and material prosperity. 
He planned a new plantation of Connaught, which would have 
driven the native Irish from their last retreats. But his master- 
ful ways alienated Irishmen of every class. Wentworth was a 
great friend of Laud, who shared liis views. They called their 
system of trampling down all opposition Thorough, and Wentworth 
was soon able to boast to the archbishop that the system of 
" thorough " had been completely established in Ireland. He 
raised an army in Ireland, which might well some day be useful 
to extend the reign of " thorough " to Britain. 

16. Scotland also was to share with Ireland and England the 
new system of government, of wliich Laud and Wentworth were 
the great exponents. Charles pressed on his father's j,, Scottish 
policy of extending his power over the Scots by Prayer- 
making Scottish institutions as much like those of book, 1637. 
England as he could, and, in particular, by assimilating the 
Scottish Church to the Church of England. In 1633 Charles 
visited Edinburgh, and was crowned king of Scots. Laud 
accompanied him, and, by the archbishop's advice, the power 
of the newly restored Scottish bishops was increased, and a new 
bishopric was set up in Edinburgh, Surplices were ordered to 
be worn by the clergy when conducting divine worship. At last, 
in 1637, a great further step was taken, when a service-book 
was drawn up for the Scottish Church. The Scots hated aU set 
forms of worship, and looked on the English Prayer-book as popery 
in disguise. The book Charles now ordered them to use was based 
upon the English service, and alterations which were made in it, 
with the professed object of gi\dng the Scots a special book of 
their own, were all of a character that made it more in accordance 
with the teacliing of Laud and his school than the English Common 
Prayer. So unpopular was the plan in Scotland that Charles did 
not venture to get the consent either of the Scottisli parliament 
or of the general assembly of tlie Scottish Cliurch. It was imposed 
upon the country by the royal x^rerogative alone. 



444 CHARLES I. [1638- 

17. All Scotland was indignant at tlie new service-book. 
When the dean of the new cathedral of St. Giles's in Edinburgh 
The National attempted to read prayers from it for the first time, 
Covenant, there was a riot in the chnrch. All over Scotland 
1638. j^Q clergy, still Presbyterian at heart, despite the 
restoration of episcopacy, refused to use the hated liturgy, and 
were backed up by the thoroug-h sympathy of their flocks. The 
nobles, who had hitherto supported the king against the ministers, 
fell away, and, headed by Archibald Campbell, earl of Argyll, and 
James Grraham, earl of Montrose, made common cause with the 
clergy in defending* Scottish Puritanism and Scottish national 
rights. Four tables, or committees, were set up, representing the 
nobles, g'entry, clergy, and townsfolk, and as Charles had no means 
of enforcing his will, these committees became for all practical 
purposes the rulers of Scotland. In March, 1638, Scots of all 
ranks united in signing what was called the National Covenant, 
whereby they, pledged themselves to abhor " papistry " and uproot 
all traces of its " idolatries," to uphold the king's lawful authority, 
and to labour to restore the purity of the Gospel as " established 
before recent novations." It was in vain that Charles abandoned 
the Prayer-book. A General Assembly of the Church met at 
Glasgow, and soon showed so mutinous a spirit that the king 
dissolved it. The assembly declared that the king had no right 
to interfere with the spiritual freedom of the Church, and went 
on with its work all the same. It formally abolished episcopacy, 
and the good will of the whole nation secured that its decree 
should at once be carried out. 

18. Charles thus saw his authority set aside by his Scottish 
subjects. Being without an army, he had no means of restoring' 
The First ^^^ sway. His only chance was to appeal to the old 
Bishops' hatred of the English to the Scots, and raise a force 
War, 1 639. jji England by which he mig'ht conquer Scotland like 
a foreign country. But the Eng'lish saw that the Scots had a 
common cause with them against the king, and honoured the Scots 
for showing them the way to resist him. The few troops that 
Charles could collect were mutinous, ill trained, and had no heart 
for his cause. Against him the Scots broug-ht together a fine 
army, many of the soldiers having, like the general, Alexander 
Leslie, been trained in the art of war when fighting as volunteers 
for the Protestant cause in Germany. The result was that the 
First Bishops' War, as men called it, which Charles attempted to 
fight in the summer of 1639, was a sorry failure. Charles, finding 



-1640.J CliARLES I. 445 

his soldiers would not light, was forced to sign the treaty of 
Berwick, by which all Scottish grievances were to be settled by 
a free parliament and general assembly. Perceiving, however, 
that both parliament and assembly were resolved to insist on the 
abolition of episcopacy, Charles adjourned their sessions, and 
again resolved to try the fortune of war. 

19. This bold policy required a stronger hand than Charles or his 
weak ministers possessed. The king therefore recalled Wentworth 
from Ireland, made him earl of Strafford, and gave j. (,. . 
him his chief confidence. Strafford was clear-headed Parliament, 
enough to see that Charles could only hope to be April, 1640. 
successful in fighting the Scots by summoning a parliament and 
throwing himself upon the support of England. Very miwillingly 
Charles accepted his advice, and again met a parliament in April, 
1640. Led by Hampden, the hero of the ship-money struggle, and 
John Pym, an able and eloq^uent squire of Somerset, the Commons 
refused to give Charles any supply unless he first redressed their 
grievances. This meant changing Charles's whole system of govern- 
ment, a course for which the king was not yet prepared. Accord- 
ingly Charles dissolved his fourth parliament when it had sat about 
three weeks. For this reason it was known as the Short Parliament. 

20. Despite his failure to get parKamentary supplies, Charles 
managed somehow to get an army together to fight the Scots in 
the summer. This time the Scots did not wait for j.^^ second 
Charles at home, but boldly invaded England, where Bishops' 
they were welcomed as liberators. It was in vain that War, 1 640. 
Charles strove to defend the passage of the Tyne against the 
northern army. After some fighting at Newhurn, near Newcastle, 
the English ran away, and the Scots occupied the south bank of 
the river. Their march southwards was no longer opposed. In 
October, Charles, again forced to treat, made with them the treaty 
of Bipon, by which he promised to pay the expenses of the army 
which had beaten him. Next year he signed a permanent treaty that 
left Scotland in the hands of the Presbyterians. Thus the Second 
Bishops' War was even more disastrous to the king than the first. 

21. The need of paying the Scots army brought Charles's 
embarrassments to a head. He was now obliged to raise a large 
sum of money, and, fearing to meet another parlia- j^ie great 
ment, he called together at York a great council of council at 
peers. The lords told him that he must summon a York, 
parliament, and, having no other resource, he was constrained to 
follow their advice. 



446 CHARLES I. [1640- 

22. On November 3, 1640, Charles's fifth and last parliament, 
memorable in our history as the luong Parliament, assembled at 
Meetine of Westminster. The king was absolutely at its mercy, 
the Long and the whole of the Commons and a large number of 
Parliament, the Lords were bent on reversing the whole of his 

" ' system of government. The king's ministers were at 
once attacked. Strafford and Laud were impeached, and Strafford, 
as the more dangerous of the two, was first brought up for trial 
before the Lords. It was soon, however, found very difiicult to 
convict him of any legal offence. He was charged with treason, 
but treason, by English law, was treason against the king, and 
Strafford's real crime was to have served the king too well at the 
expense of his country. Great efforts were made to prove that 
a letter of Strafford, in which he urged the king to use the 
Irish army against the English or Scots, amounted to levying 
war against the king. This was, however, a most strained and 
unnatural twisting of the law, and the Lords, the judges of the case, 
Attainder of ^^^itated as to whether it would be accepted. De- 
Straffopd, spairing of wreaking vengeance on their foe by judicial 
May, 1641. means, the Commons dropped the impeachment, and 
borrowed from the worst precedents of Henry viii., the procedure 
known as an act of attainder. This was simply passing a new 
law enacting that Strafford should die. It was practically denying 
to the accused any proper trial, and disposing of him by virtue of 
the power of a law to do anything. The bill easily passed the 
Commons, and the Lords were frightened into accepting it by the 
timely discovery of what was called the arm^y plot, an intrigue of a 
few courtiers to upset the parliament and establish a despotism. 
Charles was then asked to give the royal assent to the bill. He had 
promised Strafford that not a hair of his head should be hurt, but, 
after a pitiful hesitation, gave way. On hearing the king's decision 
Strafford exclaimed, " Put not your trust in princes." On May 12, 
1641, he was beheaded on Tower Hill. Laud was kept in the 
Tower until there was leisure to proceed against him also. 

23. The more satisfactory work of the early sessions of the 
Long Parliament was the clean sweep which it made of the 

macliinery by which Charles had attempted to play 
measures ^^^ despot for eleven years. It abolished the Court of 
of the Long High Commission, the Council of the North, the Star 
1640-4&if ^' Chamber, and the other prerogative courts, and released 

their victims, such as Prynne, who were now hailed as 
popular heroes. It reversed the unconstitutional decisions of the 



-1641.] CHARLES I. 447 

jiidg-es, such as those in Darnell's case and Hampden's case. 11 
declared ship money, tunnage and j^oundage, and the new imposi- 
tions illegal. It passed a Triennial Act, enacting that not more 
than three years should elapse without a meeting of parliament. 
It deprived Charles of his favourite weapon of a dissolution by 
forcing on him a law that the existing parliament should not bo 
dissolved without its own consent. As with Strafford's impeach- 
ment, parliament showed a wonderful agreement in carrying all 
these measures. The king had no party, and was forced to stand 
aside while Pym and Hampden, the spokesmen of the representa- 
'tives of the nation, destroyed his power as they would. 

24. Having reordered the government of the State, the par- 
liamentary leaders set to work to provide for the future of the 
Church. With Pym and Hampden's goodwill a bill j^e Root 
was brought forward, called the Boot and Branch and Branch 
Bill, which proposed to abolish bishops altogether and ' ^^'*^' 
put the control of the Church into the hands of a commission of 
laymen. The revolutionary character of this measure had the 
result of dividing the Long Parliament for the first time into 
parties. There were still many who loved bishops and the Prayer- 
book. Such men would willingly have made common cause with 
Pym and Hampden in getting rid of what were called Laud's 
"innovations," but their conservative temper made it intolerable 
to them that the Elizabethan settlement of the Church should be 
destroyed. Headed by Edward Hyde, a rising lawyer, and by Lucius 
Cary, Viscount Falkland, a broad-minded, warm-hearted enthusiast 
of deep religious feeling, they opposed the Root and Branch Bill. 
The result was that the second reading was only carried by a smaU 
majority. Soon afterwards parliament separated for the vacation. 

25. When Parliament scattered Charles went to Scotland. 
Some of his followers formed a foolish plot, called the Incident, 
which aimed at arresting Argyll and the Presbyterian j^e 
leaders at the moment when Charles professed the Incident, 
utmost friendship for them. Though Charles denied 

any knowledge of the scheme, the detection of his friends' treachery 
brought him much discredit. 

26. Still graver suspicion was cast upon Charles when a serious 
rebellion broke out in Ireland. As soon as Strafford's strong hand 
Was removed, the oppressed Irish burst into revolt j^^ ^^^^^^ 
against his weak successors. The native Irish in Rebellion, 
Ulster rose against the Protestant settlers, and Owen l^'*^* 

Roe O'Neill, the exiled chief of the greatest of the Ulster clans, 



44^ CHARLES I. [1641^ 

came back from liis exile, and put himself at the head of the rebels. 
Soon the rising spread to other provinces, and the Straffordian 
system of " thorough " was soon violently overthrown. Great atroci- 
ties were wrought, which were magnified by rumour in England. 
It was reported that the bloodthirsty Irish had massacred thousands 
of Protestants in cold blood. The king and his papist q^ueen were 
denounced as accomplices of the assassins, or as anyhow having 
given the signal to the revolt by the sympathy they had shown to 
Roman Catholics. 

27. In the autumn of 1641 parliament met again, thoroughly 

alarmed by the Irish rebellion, and eager to take advantage of 

every rumour that blackened the king. It drew up 
The Grand ox 

Remon- ^ long document, called the Grand Remonstrance, 

strance, wherein it recapitulated aU the evil deeds wrought by 

^^" ' Charles since his accession. It attributed the root of 
the mischief to Charles's " malignant design to subvert the funda- 
mental laws and principles of government," and demanded that 
ministers should be employed who possessed the confidence of 
parliament, and that the Church should be reformed by a synod of 
divines. In substance it declared that Charles's concessions counted 
for nothing, and that parliament would only be satisfied with revo- 
lution in Church and state. Hyde and Falkland now mustered 
those who had opposed the Root and Branch Bill to vote against 
the Remonstrance. After a hot debate, Pym and Hampden only 
managed to pass the Remonstrance through the Commons by a 
majority of eleven. 

28. The division of the once united Commons into two nearly 
equal parties gave Charles a splendid opportunity of winning back 

a position of influence. The foes of the Remonstrance 
sion of were a constitutional royalist party in the making. 

Parliament pledged to uphold the existing institutions in Church 
mrties*' ^^^ state, though equally pledged against arbitrary 

rule and Laudian innovations. But Charles had no 
eyes to see how affairs were tending, and Ms one idea was to win 
back all that he had lost by taking advantage of the disunion of 
his natural enemies, the Commons. He mafde a feeble attempt to 
conciliate the moderate party by giving office to Falkland, but he 
_,, , , , immediately afforded damning proof that Pym and 
on the five Hampden were justified in their incurable distrust of 
members. j^jm by a foolish and treacherous attack on the leaders 

of the majority. On January 3, 1642, he accused 
Lord Kimbolton and five commoners, among whom were Pym 



-1 642.1 CHARLES I. 449 

and Hampden, of high treason, on the groirnd of their nego- 
tiations wiih. the Scots, wliich he regarded as conspiring with 
the king's enemies. Not content with that, he went down to the 
House of Commons, and demanded that the five members should be 
surrendered. Forewarned of the king's designs, the five members 
had escaped to the City, and Charles was forced to withdraw, 
amidst angry cries of "Privilege." Thereupon the Commons 
transferred their sessions from Westminster to the City, whose 
walls afforded them protection, and whose citizens were ardently 
on their side. 

29. Charles was so completely bafiled that, a week later, he 
abandoned the capital, leaving his palace and all the resources of 
the state in his enemies' hands. War was now almost -.. 
inevitable, but efforts to avoid a rupture still occupied between 
the first six months of 1642. Charles made his last ^'"^ ^"d 
concession when he gave the royal consent to a bill 
excluding bishops from the House of Lords. Soon after the 
Houses sent up for his approval a Militia Bill, wliich transferred 
the command of the militia from officers appointed by the king to 
commanders appointed by themselves. When Charles refused to 
accept tliis, the Lords and Commons ordered that it should bo 
carried out as an ordinance of parliament, and were obeyed over 
a great part of the country. Parliament then formulated their 
final terms in the Nineteen Propositions presented to Charles at 
York, the effect of which would have been to make him only a 
nominal ruler. Indignantly rejecting these proposals, Charles 
raised troops and money on his own account. There had ali'eady 
been collisions between the friends of the king and parliament at 
Manchester and Hull when, on August 22, the king set up his 
standard at Nottingham as a signal that civil war had begun. 

30. The Great Rebellioyi, as it was called, saw the division of 
the nation so equally between king and parliament that the struggle 
was necessarily long and severe. Despite Charles's _., i? y i- ♦ 

..recent signs of bad faith, he found a large proportion and Parlia- 
of the country enthusiastically on his side. Few mentary 
Englishmen had any real love of revolution, and the 
uncompromising wish shown by the parliament to alter the whole 
system of government in Church and State caused many to rally 
round the king. Nearly all those who had upheld Hyde and Falk- 
land were now on Charles's side, and gradually more than a third 
of the Commons, and more than half of the Lords, deserted West- 
minster and joined Charles. Both parties professed to maintain 

2g 



450 CHARLES I. [1642- 

tlie old constitution, and many holding almost tlie same views were 
found in opposite camps. In the king-'s favour was the strong- 
personal attachment of his own friends and the stronger feeling of 
loyalty to the office of monarch. Against him were the errors of 
his past career and the profound distrust which so many felt of his 
character and motives. Religion divided the two sides more clearly 
than politics. Puritanism was the real strength of parliament, 
and all who loved bishops and Prayer-book, or were afraid of the 
setting up of a rigid Calvinistic despotism over conscience and 
liberty, fought for the king. The Roman Catholics were neces- 
sarily royalists, since a Puritan triumph meant a renewal of bitter 
persecutions for the friends of the old Church. There was no clear 
class division between the parties. Though the majority of the 
Lords and country gentry were royalists, yet a large proportion of 
the greater nobles of old standing was opposed to the crown, and 
the leaders of the Commons were gentlemen of large estate and 
high social position. It is easier to draw a geographical Kne 
between parties, though both sides had representatives everywhere. 
Roughly speaking, parliamentary preponderance rested on London 
and the southern and south-eastern shires ; while the districts most 
loyal to the king were the north, Wales, and the south-west. This 
corresponds very roughly to the older divisions between York and 
Lancaster, between friends and foes of the Reformation under the 
Tudors. The more wealthy and progressive parts of the land were 
for the parliament; the old-fashioned and conservative districts 
felt more keenly the impulse of loyalty to the crown. Parliament 
had most resources, and was, in particular, in a much stronger 
financial position than the king. The royalists were called Cava- 
liers — ^that is, horsemen or gentlemen; and the Parliamentarians 
were nicknamed Roundheads, from the close-cropped hair affected 
by the Puritans. 

31. Charles soon gained a large following in the Midlands. 
He appointed the earl of Lindsey to the supreme command, and 
nr.j^ placed the horse under his nephew, Prince Rupert, the 

campaign son of Frederick, Elector Palatine, and his English 
of 1642. wife, Elizabeth Stewart. Charles's plan was to march 

southwards on London, the parliamentary headquarters. But the 
chief parliamentary army, commanded by the earl of Essex, the 
son of Elizabeth's favourite, followed closely on his heels, and com- 
pelled him to fight the first pitched battle of the war at Edge Hill, 
5n the borders of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire. Led by the im- 
petuous Rupert, the king's cavalry "easily defeated the horsemen 



-1643. J CHARLES I. .451 

of the enemy, but the parliamentary infantry proved superior to 
the foot-soldiers of the king. When night fell, Essex withdrew 
his troops, leaving the king the fruits of victory. Edge Hill 
Charles thereupon resumed his march to London. On and 
his way he occupied Oxford, and made his headquarters ^•'^"I'ford. 
of that city, whose university, inspired by Laud's teaching, was en- 
thusiastically on his side. From Oxford he pushed his way through 
Reading to London. He got to Brentford, within a few miles of 
the capital, but dared not venture to fight a pitched battle with the 
London militia, massed to oppose him on Turnhmn Green, between 
Hammersmith and Brentford. Winter was approaching, and 
Charles withdrew from Brentford to Oxford. He was never so near 
success as when he thus turned back from the suburbs of Londor. 

32. The early part of the campaign of 1643 was decidedly in 
favour of the king. The main armies, ranged between Oxford and 
London, did not show great energy, and the most j^q 
memorable conflict between them was a skirmish campaign 
between Rupert's horsemen and the parliamentary 

forces at Chalgrove Field, ten miles east of Oxford, where Hampden 
received his death-wound. His loss was the greater since Pym, the 
other parliamentary spokesman, died in the course of 
the same year. The main scenes of fighting were in t;?2[^ccoc 
the north and west, where each side had set on foot 
independent local armies. In both cases the preponderating feeling 
of the district was royaKst, and in both the royalist cause prevailed. 
The king's general, the earl of Newcastle, defeated Lord Fairfax 
and his son, Sir Thomas Fairfax, at Adwaltmi Moor, near Bradford, 
and conquered all Yorkshire, save Hull. In the south-west the 
battle of Stratto7i was an equally decisive royalist triumph. Corn- 
wall and Devon were conquered, and the western army finished up 
its career of victory by marching through Somerset and defeating 
Sir William Waller at Boundway Down, near Devizes, in Wiltshire. 
Plymouth alone in the west upheld the cause of parliament. 
Bristol opened its gates, and nothing save the resistance of 
Puritan Gloucester prevented the royalist conquest of the lower 
Severn valley. * 

33. The royalists threw all their efforts into the attack on 
Plymouth, Hull, and Gloucester. Charles himself undertook the 
investment of the latter place, and soon pressed it so pjj, . u„ tfig 
hard that Essex, though a sluggish general, felt forced of Newbury, 
to attempt to raise the siege. On his approach Charles Sept., 1643, 
fled, and Gloucester was thus saved from danger. Essex now mado 



452 CHARLES 1. I1643- 

liis way back to London, retiring* by circuitous roads so as to 
avoid Oxford. On September 20 he found Iiis return blocked 
at Newhu7"y by Charles's army, and was forced to accept battle. 
Charles's army was strongly posted on the slopes of a hill, and 
Essex's men had to advance through narrow lanes and broken 
ground to the attack. Rupert's impatience at fighting a mere 
defensive action caused him to risk the day by leading a fierce 
charge against the enemy. But the steadiness of the London 
militia resisted his headlong assaults, and when night fell the 
sturdy citizens still maintained their ground. The royalists suffered 
such severe losses that Charles, under cover of darkness, retreated 
to Oxford. Among the royalists slain was Falkland. 

34. The relief of Gloucester, and the virtual victory at New- 
bury, marked the turning-points in the war. Henceforth the 

.. royalist successes were stayed, and the year ended 
and the without any more decisive action. In one field, the 

Eastern eastern counties, the Puritan cause held its own, 

even in the darkest days of the war. There was no 
fighting here, since, on the outbreak of hostilities, the various 
shires were combined in an organization known as the Eastern 
Association, which set up a well-disciplined army of sturdy Puritans, 
commanded by the earl of Manchester — who, as Lord Kimbolton, 
had shared the fate of the five members — and by Oliver CromweU, 
a descendant of a Welsh nephew of Thomas Cromwell, and the 
member for Cambridge town in the Long Parliament. Cromwell 
was soon the soul of the Eastern Association, which he inspired with 
his own fierce and determined spirit. Its army conquered Lincoln- 
shire at Wincehy fight on the same day that Newcastle was forced 
to relinquish his long siege of Hull. 

35. After nearly two years of almost balanced victory, king and 
parliament now sought to obtain outside support. Fortunately 

foreign intervention was impossible, since the Thirty 
tion, and Years' War still occupied the attention of the chief 
the Solemn nations of Europe. But Charles looked to Ireland and 
Covenaiu" parliament to Scotland for possible assistance. Charles 

made a treaty called the Cessation with the Irish 
Catholics, which set free Strafford's army to come over and help 
him, though it once more involved him in the imputation of being 
a friend of papists. Parliament did a better stroke of business in 
signing a treaty with the Scots, called the Solemn League and 
Covenant, by which the Scots army was sent to aid the English 
Puritans on condition of England pledging itseK to accept 



-1644.] CHARLES I. 453 

Presbyterianism, which the Scots believed in so greatly that they 
would not move a fing-er to help the English until they adopted it. 

36. Early in 1644 fighting was renewed. The army sent from 
Ireland to aid the king was scattered soon after its landing, but the 
well-disciplined levies of the Scots joined the Fairfaxes, -,. 

and soon reversed the previous fortunes of war in the campaign 
north of England. At last the combined Puritan of 1644. 
armies shut up Newcastle and liis army in York, which they 
straightway besieged. Manchester and Cromwell came up to 
the help of the Scots and Fairfaxes. Soon York was so severely 
pressed that Charles sent Rupert with the best part of his army 
to its relief. On his approach the siege of York was raised and 
the three armies of the parliament took up a position facing 
northwards on rising ground between the villages of Marston and 
Tockwith, a few miles west of York, where they awaited the attack 
of Newcastle and Rupert. Thus was brought about, on July 2, 1644, 
the battle of Marston Moor, the most important battle of the war. 

37. The three Puritan armies were posted amidst fields of rye 

on the low ridge that dominates Marston Moor from the south. 

Manchester and the Association army held the left, 

The Battle 
his extreme left being protected by Cromwell at the of Marston 

head of the eastern cavalry and David Leslie with the Moop, 

Scots horse. Lord Fairfax and the Yorkshire July 2. 1644. 

infantry were in the centre, while the Scots foot, commanded by 

Alexander Leslie, now Lord Leven, David's uncle, were stationed 

more to the right. The right flank was held by Sir Thomas 

Fairfax and the Yorkshire cavalry. On the other side Rupert 

stationed his horsemen over against CromweU, while Lord Goring, 

with the rest of the cavahy, held the left wing oi)j)osite Sir Thomas 

and liis Yorkshiremen. The infantry was massed in the centre, 

Rupert's troops being in advance of Newcastle's, which were held 

in reserve in the rear. The armies faced each other until six 

o'clock in the summer evening, when Rupert resolved to postpone 

tlie attack tiU next day. Suddenly the parliamentary forces 

advanced in a late and unexpected assault. Tliough taken by 

surprise, the royaKsts held their own manfully. Soon the tide of 

battle began to set against the Puritans. Lord Fairfax's centre 

was cut through, and his son's cavalry fled in headlong panic before 

Goring's troopers. The fortunes of the day were, liowever, stayed 

by the steadiness of Leven's Scottish infantry, who, though isolated 

by the retreat of the Fairfaxes o-n both sides of them, held tlieir 

own with fierce pertinacity. Meanwliile, Cromwell and Rupert had 



454 



CHARLES I. 



[1643- 



^^\>.^ IZD Districts held by ihe Kincf 

BH .. » Parliament 




i 



€mery WaCk.er,:icP 



8NGLAND AND WALES DURING THE GREAT CIVIL WAR, MAY. 1643. 



1644.1 



CHARLES 2, 



455 



I — I Districcs held by the King 
Hi - Parliament 




i€/njir^ WaCker^ io 
EK6LAND AND WALES DURING THE GR?UT CIVIL WAR, NOVEMBER, IG44. 



456 



CHARLES I. 



[1644- 



crossed swords in tlie western section of tlie field. These commanders 
had already won the reputation of being the ablest generals of 
cavalry on their respective sides. Meeting each other for the first 
time, they fought with extreme courage and endurance. For a 
time Cromwell's heavy horsemen held their own with difficulty 
against the boisterous onslaught of Rupert. Then a timely charge 
of David Leslie turned the balance, andEupert's troopers were soon 
driven in flight to the north. With great prudence Cromwell 
desisted from the pursuit, and tui-ned to the assistance of the hotly 
pressed Scots foot. Manchester's men rallied on witnessing their 



To/t- 



Battle of 

MARSTON MOOR 

2july 1644 

English. Mile 

o , ¥ y? % \ 



Tockwiti^^:^^,^!^ 




^^m Parliamentary Army 

1. Horse under Cromwell & D.Leslie 

2. Association foot under Manchester 

3. Lord Fairfax's Yorkshire foot 

4. Lord Leuen's Scottish foot 
S.Sir T.Fairfax's Yorl<shire horse 



^ % 

I \ Royalist Army 

I. Rupert's horse 
Rupert's foot 
Newcastle's foot 
Goring' s horse 




Marston 



Emery Walker sc. 



comrades' success. Thereupon the whole forces of the Association 
assailed the royalists on their right flank, and soon won a complete 
triumph. " God made them," boasted Cromwell, " as stubble to our 
swords." The royaUsts were scattered ; a day half lost was changed 
into a great victory, and the whole of the north fell into the hands 
of the conquerors. 

38. Parties were still so well balanced that Marston Moor was 
not in itself decisive. Essex's army was destroyed by an abortive 
attempt to invade Cornwall ; and later in the year, when Manchester 
and Cromwell marched south to redress the Puritan fortunes, the 
sluggishness of the former missed a good chance of victory in the 
second battle ofNeivbury. But the greatest successes of Charles were 



-1645.] CHARLES I. 457 

* 

broug*ht about by an unexpected royalist rising in Scotland under 
James Graliam, earl of Montrose. Montrose liad acted with Argyll, 
the Presbyterian leader, in rejjudiating the bishops 
and accepting the covenant. But he grew weary of stJ,^cfi'on 
the Calvinistic tyranny and was disgusted at the strong of Essex's 
position which Argyll and his allies, the ministers, had ^rmy and 
attained. Montrose's ideal was that of a constitutional Montrose, 
monarchy, ruling through the nobles and gentry, and 
keeping the clergy and the greater magnates in subjection. Pres- 
byterianism was so strong, however, in Lowland Scotland that 
Montrose had no chance of winning many followers in the south. 
After vainly attempting to stir up a rising there, he turned to the 
Highlands, where he met with a warmer welcome. In the wild 
north and west of Scotland the Highland clans still maintained their 
turbulent independence. Every vaUey was governed by the clan 
chieftain just as the O'Neills and their fellows had ruled in Ireland 
until the Elizabethan conquest. Argyll was not only a great Low- 
land nobleman, but the head of the powerful Presbyterian clan of 
the Campbells, whose greed and aggressiveness made them hated 
by all the neighbouring tribesmen. The Highlanders readily rose 
at the bidding of the foe of the Campbells, and Montrose, with a 
true soldier's instinct, first led the fierce clansmen into the Low- 
lands, and made them the arbiters between the contending factions 
of the south. His appreciation of the military value of the High- 
landers brought a new element into the scene which changed the 
fortunes of Scottish history on at least four occasions within the 
next hundred years. For the moment he was brilliantly successful. 
After many minor victories he scattered the Campbells at Inver- 
lochy, near Ben Nevis, on February 2, 1645. 

39. The continued successes of the royalists filled the party of 
the parliament with extreme disapj)ointment. Ardent spirits 
declared that the failure of tlie popular cause was 
largely due to the sluggishness and incompetence of JJjj^^j^^^ 
tlie great noblemen, like Essex and Manchester, to ^j^g gelf- 
wliom the command of the armies had been assigned Denying 
by reason of their hereditary claims. Others saw a Prfl"^"^®* 
chief reason for iU success in the want of organiza- 
tion and method of tlie locally raised and independently controlled 
armies. It was a proof that the extreme men were growing in 
power, that the aged Laud was attainted and executed early in 
1045, a cruel act of vengeance that did nothing- save to make peace 
more impossible. More honourable triumphs were the passing of 



458 



CHARLES I, 



[1645- 



the 'Rew Model Ordinance, which, welded the armies of the ParKa- 
ment together in a single whole, with sterner discipline, better 
organization, and regular pay, and the Self-Denying Ordinance, hy 
which members of either House of Parliament were deprived of their 
commands. This was an ingenious plan for getting rid of Essex, 
Manchester, and Waller, but it should also have involved the removal 
of Cromwell. Cromwell was, however, the real inspirer of the 
new army system, and was thought indispensable. He was made 
lieutenant-general, or second in command, with supreme authority 
over the cavalry. Sir Thomas Fairfax became general-in-chief. 
40. The campaign of 1645 proved the value of the New Model. 




EmervWalfcer sc . 



After purposeless wanderings in the Midlands, Charles and Fairfax 
. met in battle on the high plateau of Nasehy, in 

of Naseby, Northamptonsliire, on June 14. As usual, the cavalry 
June 14, on the wings took the chief part in the struggle, but 

while Hupert on the king's right, after scattering 
his opponents under Ireton, wasted his time in pursuing the enemy 
and plundering the baggage train, CromweU, who easily scattered the 
royalist left, at once desisted from pursuit, as at Marston, and fiercely 



-1646.] CHARLES I, 459 

» 
attacked the infantry on the royalist centre that had more than held 
its own in the early part of the encounter. Crushed between Crom- 
well's troopers and the rallying- infantry of the New Model, the 
royaKst centre was soon hopelessly defeated. Before long Cromwell 
had won a battle even more complete than the fig-ht at Marston Moor. 

41. The royalists still strug-gled manfully, but Montrose in 
Scotland was the only general who could still win victories for 
Charles. The Highland host had swept everything 

before it, but, when the fight was won, the sim^jle phiiip- 
clansmen had no thought save to go home and revel haugh, 
on the spoils. Montrose soon found the impossibility of ^^P^*» 1645. 
keeping a Highland army long in the field an insuperable obstacle 
between him and the conquest of Scotland. In despair of his 
Celtic allies, he once more appealed to the Lowlands, but he was 
only joined by a few border lairds and their followers. David 
Leslie returned from England, and had little difficulty in destroy- 
ing Montrose's little force at Fhiliphaugh, on Ettrick Water, in 
September, 1645. Montrose fled to the Highlands and thence to 
the continent. The Covenanters again dominated all Scotland. 

42. For nearly a year after Naseby Charles continued the 
struggle. At last, in May, 1646, seeing that his only choice was 
between exile and surrender, he rode into the Scots . 

camp, thinking that he might persuade them to renders to 
uphold him against the English. This the Scots the Scots, 
might have done if Charles would have given up ^ ' 
episcopacy, but on his refusing their terms, they handed liim over 
to parliament, and went back to their own country. Fortune, 
however, stiU favoured the king. If he could not set Scots against 
English, he soon had a chance of winning back some power by 
playing off against each other the two factions into which the 
victorious parKamentarians were now breaking up. 

43. Already, during the discussions about the New Model, a 
strong cleavage had become marked between the moderate men, 
powerful in the two Houses of Parliament, and the ppggKy. 
extreme men, who gained the chief positions in the terians and 
reorganized army. In an age that set religion before Indepen- 
politics, these two parties became known as Presby- 
terians and Independents. The Presbyterians of the Long Parlia- 
ment were not zealots for the divine right of Presbytery like their 
Scots aUies, though they liad agreed to make the English Church 
Presbyterian. With the help of the Westminster Asse^nhly of Divines 
they had removed bishops and Prayer-book from the English Church, 



460 CHARLES I, [1646- 

and tad made it in all things like the Church, of Scotland, save 
that they insisted on maintaining parliamentary control over the 
Clmrch. after a fashion th.at the Scots thought an impious inter- 
ference by the secular power with spiritual matters. Even in tlie 
Westminster Assembly, however, a little knot of sectaries, or 
Independents, made their influence felt. Holding the same views 
as the Brownists of Elizabeth's reign, the sectaries wished to make 
each congregation a seK-governing Church. They thought that 
the " new presbyter is but old priest writ large," and feared to 
extend to England the spiritual tyranny set up in Scotland. It 
followed from their views that they were advocates of toleration, 
while the Presbyterians were more eager than Laud to impose their 
tenets upon every one, and stamp .out all dissent. 

44. The might of Independency lay in the strong and growing 
hold which it had over the army. When appeal is once made 
Parliament *^ ^^^ sword, the sword naturally has the final settle - 
and the ment of affairs. But the Presbyterian leaders in 
army. parliament did not reaKze what an immense authority 
belonged to the warriors who had fought their battles. Now that 
the war was over they hoped to disband the army, and were so 
eager to do this that they did not even pay the soldiers their arrears 
of pay before their dismissal. This foolish step united the army 
as one man against the Lords and Commons. The beginnings of 
opposition arose from the elected representatives of the soldiers, 
but CromweU, after some hesitation, threw in his lot with them. 

45. Parliament, alarmed by the attitude of the army leaders, 
began to negotiate with the king and Scots. Thereupon Cromwell 
Charles's ^^^^ ^ ^^^ troops of horse to Holmby House, near 
intrigues Northampton, where Charles was living, and secured 

with both ^j^Q custody of the king for the army. Charles was 

the army ./ o .; 

and the respectfully treated by the soldiers, who offered him 

Presby- better terms than the Scots or parliament had done, 

terians. tt • i ^ i- • i 

He might even continue episcopacy so long as none 

were forced to obey the bishops' jurisdiction. But Charles, as 

usual, shirked taking up a straightforward line. Deceived by the 

anxiety which both parties had shown to get him on their side, he 

thought he was still strong enough to play off one against the other, 

and ultimately win back Ms old position. His incurable vacillation 

and lack of faith soon convinced the soldiers that no trust could be 

placed in him. While professing to listen to the army terms, he 

signed a secret Engagement with the Scots, in which he promised to 

set up Presbyterianism for three years and put down heresy— that 



-1649] CHARLES 1. 461 

is, Independency. In deep disgust the Independent leaders resolved 
to have no more to do with the treacherous king*. An unsuccessful 
attempt at escape gave them the pretext for keeping* him. under 
restraint for the first time, at Carisbrooke Castle, in the Isle of Wigrht. 

46. In 1648 the English Presbyterians joined hands with the 
Scots against the army. The result was the second Civil War, in 
which a Scottish force advanced through Cumberland -., , 
and Lancashire to restore the king, while Presbyterian civil War, 
Kent and Essex, where there had hitherto been no 1648. 
fighting at all, rose in revolt against army rule. Fairfax soon 
crushed the rising in the Home Counties by the capture of Colchester, 
while Cromwell fell upon the Scots and signally defeated them in 
a series of fights between Preston and Warrington. All England 
was now at the mercy of the New Model army, controlled by tierce 
fanatics, who were weary of compromise and intrigue, and felt a 
divine call to govern England after their own fashion. 

47. Parliament still timidly upheld the Presbyterian position, 

and tried to renew negotiations with the king. On December 6, 

1648, Colonel Pride went down to Westminster and _,. . . 

drove out the Presbyterian members of the House of of the Inde- 

Commons. The minority of Independents, soon derided pendents, 

as the Rump, was allowed to sit, but these men were and the 

puppets in the hands of the soldiers. The army now execution of 

demanded that Charles should be brought to trial as 9*^^^'^llu' 

. . Jan 1649 
guilty of the unnecessary bloodshed of the second Civil 

War. The little knot of Independent peers shrank from so violent 
a policy, whereupon the Commons resolved that as representatives 
of the people they had power to act by themselves. A High Court 
of Justice, of which John Bradshaw was the president, was then set 
up to try the king. Though barely haK the members nominated 
were willing to sit, Fairfax the general being himself among those 
who refused, the resolute fanatics resolved to hold their court. 
Charles, brought before it, declared that no tribunal of subjects had 
a right to sit in judgment on its sovereign. This plea was dis- 
regarded, and, after a mere pretence of a trial, the king was con- 
demned to death on January 27 as a murderer and a traitor. On 
January 30 he was beheaded outside the Banquetting House of his 
own palace of Whitehall. In the presence of death the better side 
of Charles's character asserted itself. He died with such piety, 
patience, and meekness that the incurable errors of his life were 
forgotten in the pity excited by his death, and he was reverenced 
as a martyr to Church and constitution. 



CHAPTER III 

THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE 
PROTECTORATE (1649-1660) 

Chief Dates ; 

1649. Establishment of the Commonwealth ; Cromweirs victories in 

Ireland. 

1650. Battle of Dunbar. 

1651. Battle of Worcester. 

1652. War with the Dutch. 

1653. The Instrument of Government. 
1655* Conquest of Jamaica. 

i657' The Humble Petition and Advice. 

1658. Death of Cromwell. 

1659. Fall of Richard Cromwell. 

1660. Convention Parliament and Declaration of Breda. 

1. After the execution of Charles i., the Rump, disregarding the 
claims of his son Charles, prince of Wales, abolished both 
monarchy and House of Lords, and resolved that hence- 
ment of the forward England should be a Republic, or CoTnmon- 
Common- wealth, ruled by a House of Commons only. The 
16^^^' carrying out of the laws was entrusted to a new 

Council of State of forty- one persons, which was to 
take the place of the Privy Council. The next thing to follow 
naturally would have been the dissolution of the Rump, and the 
holding of a general election ; and the army, the real source of the 
Rump's authority, was anxious that this step should be effected with- 
out delay. However, the Rump clung to power, and feared lest a 
freely elected parliament should sweep away the new constitution. 
Its ideal was a repubKcan aristocracy, such as that of Holland or 
Venice, maintaining good order, and upholding religious toleration 
for all sorts of Puritans. Por more than four years it was suffered 
to go on ruling England. Its real masters, the soldiers, had plenty 
to do during that period in defeating their enemies in Scotland 
and Ireland, and in teaching foreign states to respect the young 
republic. 
462 



1650.] COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE 463 

2. Even in England troubles beset the infant commonweaUh. 
The royalist party was inspired with new life by the pity felt for 
the fate of Charles i. A little book called, Mhon ..,_ ... 
BasiUke, or the Kingly Image, which professed to of the new 
contain the prayers and meditations composed by the govern- 
martyr before his execution, was so eagerly read and 

admired that John Milton, the poet, now secretary to the council 
of state, wrote an answer entitled Eihonohlastes, or the Image- 
hreaker. An even greater peril came from the more turbulent 
spirits caUed the Levellers, who thought that the army leaders had 
not gone far enough, and insisted upon the immediate setting 
up of a complete democracy. Many of the keenest politicians in 
the army were of this way of thinking, and there was real danger 
from their fierce zeal. Cromwell, however, declared himself strongly 
against them. " Break them in pieces," said he to the council. 
" If you do not break them, they will break you." He sternly put 
down the mutinies which the Levellers had stirred up among the 
soldiers. The Commonwealth must make itself supreme before the 
question of what form it should take could be considered. The 
royalists dared not rise, so that the faU of the Levellers meant the 
complete subjugation of England. 

3. Ireland and Scotland were still outside the rule of the Hump. 
In Ireland since the Cessation most of the country was in Catholic 
hands, though the differences between the extreme 

Irish party and the moderate Catholic nobles made their conquest of 
position difficult, and allowed the duke of Ormonde, the Ireland, 
royalist leader, to make an alliance between the Catholic ^ ^'^^' ^ ^^^' 
lords and the Protestant royalists, and proclaim the prince of Wales 
as Charles 11., king of Ireland. Early in 1649 Cromwell crossed 
over to Ireland and waged a war against the Catholics and royaHsts. 
His first victories were the captures of Drogheda and Wexford, 
where he massacred the whole of the defeated garrisons, thinking 
that this cruel example would frighten the rest of the land into 
obedience. In 1650 the conquest had proceeded so far that Crom- 
well was able to leave its completion to liis lieutenants. These 
now restored Protestant and English ascendency in very much the 
same fashion as Strafford. The CathoHc worship was suppressed, 
and the Irish landlords were driven from their lands, or compelled 
to exchange their fertile estates for stretches of bog and moorland 
beyond the Shannon. Their property was sold to speculators, or 
else handed over to Puritan veterans, on condition of their settKng 
down as new members of the English garrison. Ireland had secured 



464 COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE [1650- 

peace and sound government, but was so sternly coerced that the 
rule of Cromwell has ever after been hated by the Irish as a time 
of peculiarly bitter tyranny. 

4. In Scotland the Presbyterians, indignant at their defeat in 

the second civil war, and always professing loyalty, after their 

Charles II fashion, to the monarchy, proclaimed the prince of 

king of Wales king of Scots immediately on his father's 

Scots, death. The young king was, however, an exile in 

1649-1651 JOB' ' ^ 

Holland. Clever and clear-headed, but needy, frivolous, 

and debauched, Charles 11. had no mind to submit himseK to the 
restraints which the Covenanters sought to impose upon their 
king, and remained in HoUand, while Montrose crossed to Scot- 
land in 1650, and attempted another royalist rising, in the hope of 
making the king's nominal rule a real one. He was unsuccessful, 
and was soon captured and hanged. This tragedy showed Charles 
that he must accept the Presbyterian terms or remain in poverty 
and exile. He bent his neck to the yoke, subscribed the Covenant, 
pledged himself to set up Presbyterianism in aU the three king- 
doms, and was thereafter coldly welcomed by his subjects, and 
crowned king of Scots in January, 1651. Argyll, however, re- 
mained the real ruler of Scotland, and the young king was com- 
pletely dependent on his stern Puritan taskmasters. 

5. The Rump saw that either they must conquer Scotland, or 
that the Scots would attempt to conquer England. Fairfax, long 
B ttle f disgusted with the turn things were taking, refused 
Dunbar and to lead the army against the Scots, and resigned his 
Worcester, command. CromweU, who had no such scruples, be- 
came general in his place, and invaded Scotland in the 

summer of 1650. On September 3 he gained one of the most 
brilliant of his victories at Dunbar, over a Scots army commanded 
by David Leslie, his old companion in arms. The result was the 
conquest of southern Scotland. In 1651 the Scots, in despair of 
resisting the invader any longer, took the desperate resolve of 
invading England, hoping that a royalist rising would foUow the 
appearance of the king and his troops. David Leslie again led the 
Covenanting army, and Charles 11. himself accompanied the expedi- 
tion. England was, however, so sick of war that not even the appear- 
ance of the son of the martyr of Whitehall could stir up a revolt, 
especially for a Presbyterian king surrounded by Puritan soldiers. 
Cromwell followed hard upon the invaders, so that their movement 
had more the appearance of a flight than a spontaneous advance. 
At last, on September 3, 1651, exactly a year after Dunbar, the 



'1653- J COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE 465 

g-eneral overwiielnied tlie weary band at Worcester, a battle wliicli 
lie described as a " crowning" mercy." The three kingdoms were 
now at his feet, for Argyll, unable to defend even his Higrhland 
valleys, was forced to make peace. Scotland, like Eng"land, became 
a commonwealth, without king or House of Lords. Presbyterian- 
ism was deprived of its assemblies and political influence, and 
toleration was secured for all Puritans in the laud which liad 
hitherto had freedom of worship for none save Presbyterians. 
After Worcester, the king of Scots escaped to the continent, 
having many romantic adventures on his way. 

6. The British islands all subdued, the young republic next 
turned against the foreign enemies that had insulted it. Con- 
spicuous among these was the Dutch republic, whose ^j^^ Dutch 
strong commercial rivalry with England overbore the war, 
common bonds that should have bound together two 1652-1653. 
Calvinistic commonwealths. The Rump did not fear to challenge 
Dutch hostility by passing, in 1651, a Navigation Act, which was 
directly aimed at the carrying trade which was the chief source of 
the enormous wealth of the United Provinces. By it goods were 
to be henceforth imported into England, either in English ships or 
in vessels of the country to which the cargo belonged. The result 
of the act was a fierce war at sea between England and the Dutch. 
At first the enemy had nearly everything in their favour. Their 
skips and captains were the most famous in Europe, while the 
Rump had to create a new English navy and find naval com- 
manders from its generals on land. Luckily a leader of great 
capacity for seamansliip was found in Robert Blake, a Somerset- 
sliire man, who had fought well on the side of Puritanism during 
the Civil War. Beaten in his first e:fforts by the eminent Dutch 
admiral Tromp, Blake was able to win a decided victory off 
Portland in 1653. Henceforth the two navies were so equal and 
the seamen of each so brave and obstinate that the fight was one of 
peculiar stubbornness. There was no longer, however, any danger 
of foreign nations striving to upset the yoimg republic. Abroad 
as at home the commonwealth seemed firmly established. 

7. Now that fighting was over the Puritan army had again 
leisure to concern itself with politics. It became indig*nant that so 
narrow an oligarchy as the Rump should still cling to jj^^ ^^_ 
power, and still profess to speak in the name of the pulsion of 
English people. It drew up schemes for the future ^^^^""^P' 
government of England on populai^ and Puritan lines, 

and strongly urged the dissolution of parliament. The oligarchy 

2h 



466 COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE [1653- 

paid little attention to its views. The Rump had now been so long 
in power that it forgot that it had "been created by the soldiers 
and was dependent upon them. Before long the army leaders lost all 
patience. Cromwell, though slow to move, never hesitated to take 
a decisive line when he thought the time was ripe for action. He 
convinced himself that the Rump would never willingly put an end 
to itself, and that the continuance of its rule was a danger to 
freedom. On April 20, 1653, he made a speech in parliament 
bitterly rebuking his colleagues for self-seeking and greed. " It 
is not fit," he cried, " that you should sit here any longer." There- 
upon some of his soldiers drove the Commons out of their own 
House. Thus an end was put to even a pretence of parliamentary 
government. The army thus destroyed the Commons as well as 
the monarchy and the Lords. 

8. Power was now concentrated in the soldiers and their 
g'eneral. Cromwell, thoug-h careless of forms, had no wish to 

rule as a mere military chieftain. Now that the 
Parliament I^^ii^P ^^^ removed, he cast about for a body corre- 
sponding to the House of Commoiis, though he had 
not enough faith in popular g'overnment to summon a free parlia- 
ment and let it do what it liked. He was an enthusiastic Puritan, 
and thought that the best rulers of a nation were godly and 
religious men. He now strove to gather together an assembly of 
leading Puritans selected by himself. When they met he told 
them that they had been chosen to govern England because of 
their piety. His nominees in this assembly soon g'ot out of hand. 
They forced forward wild schemes for getting rid of priests and 
lawyers, and their impracticable crochets soon made Cromwell see 
that he had made a mistake in calling them together. He persuaded 
some of the more discreet members to resign their power into his 
hands. Thus ended the meetings of the body which men called in 
derision the Little Parliament, though in truth it was no parlia- 
ment at all. It was also called Barehones' Parliament, from one of 
its members whose name was Barbon. 

9. The soldiers showed more good sense than the fanatics, and 
in December, 1653, the council of ofiicers drew lip a scheme for 
The Instpu- ^^^ future administration of England, called the J?i- 
ment of strument of Goxiernment. It provided that England, 
Govern- Scotland, and Ireland should be united in a single 

commonwealth, with one parliament and one execu- 
tive. This parliament v^as to consist of a House of Commons only, 
Oontaining four hundred members, representing the three nations, 



"1 655- J COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE 467 

and chosen according to a sclieme that g-ave members to districts 
according- to their wealth and importance, and votes in choosing" 
them to all persons possessed of property worth £"200. To this 
reformed House of Commons the whole legislative power was 
assigned. The government of the country was, however, entrusted 
to a Lord Protector, assisted by a Council of State. Cromwell was 
to be the lord protector, and the effect of the plan was to give 
him a sort of limited monarchy for life, though with not nearly so 
much power as the old kings had possessed. 

10. For the rest of his career Cromwell ruled England as pro- 
tector. He soon showed that he was as great as a statesman as he 
had been as a general. In modern days we may look ^ ., 
back with special interest to his work, since under his Protector, 
rule the three kingdoms first had a single parliament, 1653-1658. 
the first reformed parliaments sat, and religious toleration was 
tried for the first time. Wise, active, and high-minded as he 
undoubtedly was, Cromwell, nevertheless, was not able to rule 
England successfully. When his parliament met, it began to 
quarrel with the system under which it had been created, but this 
Cromwell would not permit. He told the members that they must 
accept the general principle of the Instrument of Government, 
and would not allow those who refused to bind themselves to do so 
to sit any longer. Even after this purging the Commons con- 
tinued to give Cromwell trouble, so that he dissolved them in 
disgust. 

11. Cromwell now threw over all pretence of constitutional 
rule. He levied taxes without parliamentary grant, and turned 
out the judges who seemed too outspoken in their ,^^^ Maiop- 
criticisms of his system. He divided England into- generals, 
ten large districts, over each of which he appointed a 1655. 
soldier, with the title of Major-General, to act as its governor. 
This revealed the true character of the new protectorate. It was 
based upon the power of the sword, and without the support of the 
Puritan array it would not have lasted for a month. The royalists 
hated Cromwell as a king-kiUer ; the repubKcans as a renegade who 
made liimseK a sort of king ; and even his own soldiers wavered in 
their loyalty to him. Ireland and Scotland resented Ms rule as 
that of an alien conqueror, and were only kept quiet by main force. 
In short, aU Cromwell's playing with constitutional forms was 
insincere. It is true that he preferred to rule through a parlia- 
ment. Yet he was determined to govern after his own way, and 
if his Commons did not like it, he dealt with them more roughly 



468 COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE [1654- 

fchaii ever Charles i. dared to do. His sway was, therefore, that of a 
military despot, and he belongs to the same type as Julius Csesar 
and Napoleon Buonaparte. But thoug-h one of the most arbitrary 
he was one of the most efficient of all our rulers, and, considering* 
the narrow basis of his power, he accomplished great things. 

12. Cromwell devoted much care to the settlement of the 
Church by bringing in a larger measure of toleration than 
^ , .J, England had ever known before. There was still a 
Puritan state Church, which, after a brief experience of 
State exclusive Presbyterianism before 1648, became under 

Cromwell the common ground for all men of Puritan 
views. Even the old clergy were not disturbed if they would 
abstain from using the Prayer-book and promised to be faithful 
to the commonwealth. Cromwell boasted of his comprehensive 
Church system. " Of the three sorts of godly men," he said, 
" Presbyterians, Baptists, and Independents, though a man may 
be of any of these three judgments, if he have the root of the 
matter in him he may be admitted." Ministers of these three 
ways of thinking held the livings, received the tithes, and preached 
in the churches. But outside Cromwell's tolerance were " Paj^ists " 
and " Prelatists," partly because they were not faithful to the 
commonwealth, but partly also because their opinions were thought 
to be superstitious. In other directions Cromwell was so liberal that 
he allowed Jews to settle in England and erect synagogues there 
for the first time since the reign of Edward i. A tolerance tha,t 
excluded the Prayer-book and the mass could not but find many 
dissatisfied persons, and besides Catholic and Anglica.n malcontents, 
new Puritan sects now arose which also stood outside Cromwell's 
Church. Chief among these were the Society of Frieiids, or the 
Quakers, whose protests against Calvinistic dogmatism took the 
form of believing that the inner light of each man's conscience was 
the best test of spiritual truth. 

13. Cromwell's foreign policy broug-ht him especial fame. Alone 
of our seventeenth- century rulers, he had the advantage of having 
Cromwell's ^^ army behind him, and could therefore make lus 
foreign influence felt in a fashion impossible for any Stewart 
policy. king. His first idea of foreign politics was to go back 
to the days of Queen Elizabeth, and pose as the protector of the 
Protestant interest aU over Europe. "With this object he made 
peace with the Dutch in 1654, and strove to form a league of the 
Protestant powers. He soon found, however, that religion was no 
longer the chief element in determining the relations between state 



-1658.] COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE 469 

and state, and that Protestant nations hated each other as bitterly 
as did the chief Catholic powers, France and Spain, Politics still 
centred round the rivalry of these two kingdoms. The Thirty 
Years' War had ended in 1648 by the treaty of Westphalia giving* 
religious peace to Germany. But the position then won by the 
Protestants in Germany was due, not to their own efforts, but to 
the influence of France, which in its hatred of the Hapsburgs had 
backed up the Lutherans. The peace of 1648 secured the supre- 
macy of France, which, under its young king Louis xiv. (1643- 
1715), became once more the first state in Europe. So jealous was 
Spain of French ascendency that it refused to make peace, and war 
between the two great powers continued until 1659. Their eager 
rivalry made both anxious to get the support of Cromwell. 

14. Rudely deceived in his hopes of forming a Protestant league, 
the protector had now to decide between the rival claims of two 
Catholic states to liis favour. He soon cast in his lot -,, preneh 
with France, largely on the ground that France was alliance, 
less bigoted in its popery than Spain, but also moved 1655. 

by the fact that, as in Elizabeth's days, Spain was still our chief 
rival on the sea and in America. In 1654 he sent Blake to uphold 
English interests in the Mediterranean, while another fleet under 
Penn and Yenables was despatched to the West Indies to renew the 
old Elizabethan attacks on Spanish power in the new world. Blake 
soon won fresh glory for our fleets, concluding his great career in 
1657 l)y totally destroying a Spanish fleet at Santa Cruz, in 
Teneriffe. He died on the way home, having in a few years won 
an enduring place among the very greatest of English seamen. 

15. Penn and Yenables were less fortunate, failing in an iU- 
I)lanned attack on Hispaniola, but taking Jamaica from the 
Spaniards in 1655. This was the first colony won by 
Eng'land by conquest from another European power, j 655^ and 
In 1657 and 1658, Cromwell's Puritan soldiers fought the battle of 
side by side with the French in Flanders, gaining a ^^t?""^^* 
brilliant victory in the battle of the Dunes, which re- 
sulted in our capture and occupation of DunJcirJc. With English 
lielp, France so thoroughly defeated Spain that in 1659 the Spaniards 
were glad to make peace. The conditions made Louis xiv. by far 
the strongest prince in Europe and gained Dunkirk for England. 
Cromwell's foreign policy won England a position she had not had 
since the days of Elizabeth. It deserves every praise for vigour 
and energy, yet the fundamental idea of it was mistaken. If a 
balance of power was to be maintained, Cromwell did a bad service 



470 COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE [1656- 

to Engiand and Europe by helping to build up tbe overweening" 
power of Louis xiv. 

16. Despite his first failure Cromwell still strove to rule with a 
parliament, and in 1656 summoned a second House of Commons, 

though again excluding from their seats all persons 
Petition known to be opposed to his policy. This purged 

and Advice, assembly, pleased at the withdrawal of the rule of the 

major-generals, drew uj), in 1657, a new scheme of 
government called the Humble Petition and Advice, which is 
memorable as an attempt to restore the traditional constitution 
before the Civil Wars. In the original plan Cromwell was to be 
made king, and, though respect for the prejudices of his republican 
friends led him to reject the title, a revised scheme was drafted 
giving him as protector the chief powers of a king, including the 
right of naming his successor. Moreover, the House of Lords 
was to be restored as well as the monarchy, though also under 
another name. An upper house, consisting of life peers, nominated 
by the protector, and called the Other Souse, was henceforth set 
up beside the House of Commons. Thus the old constitution was 
to come back under the house of CromweU and with a Puritan 
Church establishment. 

17. Cromwell did not Uve long enough to carry out this new 
system completely. He was cut off on September 3, 1658, the 

anniversary of Dunbar and Worcester, and the pro- 
Ppotec- tectorate, difficult enough under a man of genius, 

topateor speedily became impossible under his eldest son, 
Cpomwell, Richard Cromwell, whom Oliver had nominated as 
Septembep, }^j<5 successor, became protector as easily as one here- 
1659 ditary king succeeds another. His advisers, anxious 

to make the restoration of the old constitution 
more complete, abandoned the reformed scheme of rexDresentation, 
and caused his first parliament to be elected by the old con- 
stituencies, rotten boroughs and all. The Commons showed 
friendliness to Hichard because they were afraid of the army, and 
lioped to make an alliance with him against the soldiers. The real 
trouble began when the army insisted on having as their new 
. general, Fleetwood, with powers independent of protector and 
parliament. Richard refused this, though he offered to make 
Fleetwood lieutenant-general under himself as general. Then the 
army coerced the weak-spirited protector into dismissing parlia- 
ment. On May 25, 1659, Richard, only anxious for a quiet life in 
the country, resigned the j^rotectorate altogether. 



•i66o.] COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE 47 1 

18. Tlie army did not know wliat to do witli tlie supreme power 
wMcli devolved upon it on tlie collapse of parliament and protector. 
Without CromweR there was no one to frame them 

a policy, and the would-he successors of Cromwell The Rump 
quarrelled among" each other instead of ag-reeing 
upon common action. At last, in depair, the Rump was asked to 
resume power. The narrow and self -satisfied oligarchy had learned 
nothing" during* its years of retirement. It ag-ain arrogated to 
itself aU the rig'hts of the Commons of England, and took up a 
lofty tone in dealing with the soldiers. 

19. Everything was now in confusion, and the weakness of the 
government inspired the Presbyterians of Clieshire to rise in 
revolt. The army could still fig'ht, though it could ^ ppesbvte- 
not rule, and. Lambert, the strongest of the generals, rian revolt 
easily sujjpressed the insurrection. When peace was suppressed, 
restored, Lambert turned out the Rump ; but so Kttle * • 
was the army able to govern that, on December 26, it recalled the 
Rump for the second time. 

20. The only way that had not been tried to remedy the hope- 
less condition into which affairs had drifted was the bringing back 
of the old king and the old constitution. The first -^^^^^ ^g. 
man of authority bold enough to make this experiment clares for a 
was Georg-e Monk, a silent, hard-headed, shrewd soldier, free Parlia- 
who then commanded the army that kept Scotland in 
obedience to the commonwealth. Still keeping- his own counsel as 
to what he meant to do, IVEonk crossed the Tweed into Eng-land on 
January 2, 1660, and marched slowly to London, During the 
journey he received a warm welcome from every one, among others 
from Fairfax, now eager to undo the work of his own hands. 
When Monk reached London, he declared himself in favour of a 
free parliament meeting at once to settle the future destiny of the 
nation. He compelled the Rump to receive ba(;k the members 
ejected at Pride's Purge, This gave a majority for his friends, 
who at once voted that the Long Parliament should come to an end. 
Its last act was to make Monk general of the army. 

21. All eyes were now turned to the king of Scots and his 
court of exiles. To facilitate Monk's work, Charles issued, od 
April 4, the Declaration of Breda, in which he promised a 
general pardon, agreed to let parliament settle the chief matters 
of importance, and declared his desire to grant a " liberty to tender 
consciences " in matters of religion that did not distm-b tlie peace 
of tlie realm. A few weeks later \hfi free parliament assembled, 



472 



COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE [1660. 



the Commons for England only after tlie old fashion, and the 
Lords temporal, without the bishops, who had been lawfully 
excluded. TMs assembly, called the Convention, since 
it was not summoned by royal writ, voted that " the 
government is and ought to be by kings, Lords, and 
Commons," and invited Charles to come and receive 
his birthright. On May 29, which was also his birth- 
day, Charles 11. entered London amidst the unmeasured 
rejoicings of nearly the whole nation. This Restora- 
tion was, however, not merely a restoration of the crown. It was 
preceded by a restoration of parliament, and the wholesome laws of 
the early days of the Long Parliament remained on the statute- 
book, and made it impossible for Charles to follow blindly in his 
father's path. Thus the one great break in the continuity of 
modern English history was ended by the bringing back of the old 
constitution. 



The deela- 
pation of 
Bpeda and 
the resto- 
ration of 
Charles II., 
April-May, 
1660. 



THE CROMWELL FAMILY 
Walter Cromtvell, fuller at Putney. 



Thomas Cromwell, 
earl of Essex, 
executed, 1540. 



Catharine m. Morgan Williams^ 
of Glamorganshire. 



Richard Williams, 
alias Cromwell. 

Sir Henry Cromwell, 
of Hiuchinbrook. 



Oliver Cromwell, 
of Hinchiubrook. 



Robert Cromivell. 



Oliver Cromwell. 
Lord Protector, 
d. 1658, 
m. Elizabeth Bonrchier. 



Elizabeth Cromivell, 
m. William Hampden^ 

I 

John Hampden, 

d. KMii. 



Richard Cromwell, 
Lord Protector, 
d. 1712. 



Bridget Cromivell, 

m. Charles Fleetwood, 

Lord General, 1659. 



CHAPTER IV 

CHARLES II. C1660-1685) 

Chief Dates : 

1660. Restoration of Charles 11. 

1662. Act of Uniformity. 

1663. Foundation of Carolina. 

1665. The Dutch War ; the Great Plague. 

1666. The Great Fire of London. 

1667. Treaty of Breda and Fall of Clarendon. 

1668. Triple Alliance. 
1670. Treaty of Dover. 

1673. Test Act and Fall of Cabal. 

1678. Treaty of Nijmegen and Popish Plot. 

1679. Fall of Danby and the Habeas Corpus Act, 

1680. Exclusion Bill rejected. 

1681. Foundation of Pennsylvania. 

1682. Rye House Plot. 
1685. Death of Charles 11. 

1. Many delicate matters remained to be settled after the restora- 
tion of Charles 11. The king* had been brought back by the Presby- 
terians, but the old royalists now returned from ^ k fth 
their exile or retirement, and it was no easy matter Convention, 
to satisfy both of these parties. The Convention, 1660-1661. 
now turned into a formal parliament, set to work to embody in law 
the conditions of the Declaration of Breda. An Act of liidenmity 
was passed which g'ave a general pardon to those who had fought 
against Charles i. The regicides, who had sat in judgment on 
him, and a few others, were excepted from the amnesty, and 
thirteen of these were put to death, while others were imprisoned 
or exiled. Even dead regicides were exposed to such dishonour as 
could be wrought upon them. The bodies of Cromwell and other 
commonwealth leaders were dug out of their graves in Westminster 
Abbey, and hanged on the gallows at Tyburn. Monk's army 
received its arrears of jmy, and was disbanded, excei)t about live 
thousand men. These few regiments formed the nucleus of oiu* 
moilern standing army, which thus is directly descended from the 

473 



474 CHARLES 11. [1661- 

Cromwellian soldiers. All the proceedings of the revolutionary 
government were now treated as invalid, hut very few of the early 
acts of the Long Parliament, which Charles I. had accepted, were 
tampered with, though the Triennial Act was made less severe, and 
bishops were restored to their place in the House of Lords. Many 
of the laws of the E,ump and of the protectorate, which were thought 
good in themselves, were now re-enacted in a more legal fashion. 
Among these was the I^avigation Act of 1651, and an act abolish- 
ing military tenures. A permanent excise was granted to the 
king in compensation for his loss of the feudal revenue, and an 
income of £1,200,000 a year was voted to Charles for life. 

2. Public opinion soon ran far beyond the policy of the Conven- 
tion Parliament. The ruined royalists denounced as rebels many 

of those who had been most prominent in bring-ing about 
r ^ ^ ett?e-^' ^^^ Restoration. In particular there was a strong* in- 
mentofthe disposition to allow a Puritan assembly to settle the 
166l'^^* future constitution of the Church. Accordingly, the 

Convention was dissolved in December, and in May, 
1661, a new parliament was elected. In this the old Cavalier sj^irit 
was supreme. It insisted upon further exceptions to the Act of In- 
demnity, thoug'h Charles and his ministers did what they could to 
prevent additional deeds of vengance. The first work of this new 
parliament was the settlement of the Church. IN'either Prayer-book 
nor bishops had been legally abolished. The surviving bishops 
were restored to their sees, and the empty bishoprics were filled up. 
The chief difficulty in the bishops' way lay in the fact that parish 
clergy, appointed since the Civil War, were Puritans, who hated 
episcopacy and the Prayer-book. At first there was some talk of 
so altering the constitution of the Church as to retain the more 
moderate of the Puritan clergy within its fold, and Charles himself 
had promised to reform the Church so as to make it better liked 
by the Presbyterians. With that object a conference was held in 
ICOl at the Savoy Palace in the Strand, between the bishops and 
the Presbyterian leaders. The bishops, headed by Grilbert Sheldon, 
then bishop of London, and soon after this made archbishop of 
Canterbury, took up an unconciliatory attitude ; and the Presby- 
terians, whose chief spokesman was Richard Baxter, demanded such 
extensive changes, that the bishops had some excuse for refusing 
any concessions at all. A slight revision of the Prayer-book was 
the chief result of the Savoy Conference ; but the changes made 
in it were such as made it more distasteful to the Puritans than it 
had been before. 



-1665.] CHARLES JI. 475 

3. A series of acts of parliament now completed the restoration 
of the old Church. The first of these was the Corporation Act 
of 1661, which required that all members of municipal ^. ciaren- 
corporations should receive the Communion according don Code, 
to the rites of the Church, and ahjure the Covenant. 1661-1665. 
Next came the Act of Uniformity of 1662, which made compulsory 
the use of the revised Prayer-book after St. Bartholomew's Day, 
August 24. Another act required that all the beneficed clergy 
on whom a bishop had not laid his hands should receive episcopal 
ordination. When these laws came into operation nearly two 
thousand beneficed clergymen resigned their benefices, rather than 
read the Prayer-book and seek episcopal ordination. Their ex- 
pulsion from the Church made it necessary for such as wished 
to continue their ministry to set up congregations of their own. 
The result was the beginning of Protestant dissent on a large 
scale. Up to now the general plan of the Puritans had been to 
remain within the Church and change its character. This policy 
was henceforth impossible. N^ot only the Independents and 
Baptists, who had had churches of their own since Elizabeth's day, 
left the Church. Even the Presbyterians followed their ex- 
ample, though it was a proof of the weakness of English Presby- 
terianism that a large number of the leaders of the old Presbyterian 
party conformed to the new settlement. Stern laws strove to 
defeat the efforts of the expelled ministers to form congregations 
for themselves. Charles 11. did what he could to carry out the 
promise of " liberty to tender consciences " which he had promised 
at Breda. But even the wish of the king was of no great force 
on the zealots who professed to be glorifying his power. In 
1664 a Conventicle Act enacted that any meeting of more than five 
persons for religious worship, not in accordance with the practices 
of the Church, was an illegal conventicle, attendance at which was 
severely punished. In 1665 the Five-Mile Act forbade the ejected 
clergy to teach in schools or live within five miles of any town or 
of any place where they had once held a cure. For the rest of 
Charles's reign the prisons were filled with Dissenters who had 
broken these cruel laws in their wish to worship God in the way 
they thought right. John Bunyan, the minister of a village con- 
gregation of Baptists near Bedford, was shut up for more than 
twelve years in Bedford gaol, where he wrote his famous Pilgritn's 
Progress. 

4. Thus the ecclesiastical system of Laud and Charles i. was 
fully restored. It is the best proof of the thoroughness of the 



4/6 CHARLES II. [1660- 

reaction ag'ainst Puritanism that that RestoratioiL was the work of 
parliament itself. Land, in defiance of parliament, had persecuted 
The e tion ^l^^se who disagreed with him ; the Dissenters of the 
against age of the Restoration were legally persecuted by 

Puritanism, the act of the House of Commons itself. The same 
strong reaction against Puritanism led to a curious glorification 
of royalty and the erection of loyalty into a sort of religion. ISTew 
churches were dedicated to King* Charles the Martyr as to a new 
saint. The restored clergy preached the divine right of kings, 
and the duty of the subjects passively obeying the will of the 
Lord's anointed. The rebound from Puritan austerity showed 
itself even more strongly in a wild time of riot and dissipation 
in which the king* and his courtiers took the lead. 

5, Scotland and Ireland were as strongly a:ffiected by the 
Restoration as England. In both countries the Cromwellian 
The Resto" T^^io^ "^as set aside as illegally broug-ht about, and 
ration in both the bringing back of the local parliaments and 
Scotland. the ending of the Independent tyranny made Scots 
and Irish at first welcome the movement. But in neither country 
was there a real restoration of local independence, and English 
ascendency survived in more disguised forms. In Scotland a 
Rescissory Act abolished all legislation passed since 1633, and there- 
fore restored bishops in the Church, though no effort was made 
to set up anew the Liturgy of Laud. This measure, passed by 
a union between the king and the nobles, curbed the power of 
the Presbyterian clergy, and began to make the Restoration 
disliked among the Scots. Before long things went much 
further. Argyll, the Presbyterian leader, was executed upon 
frivolous charges of complicity with the death of Charles i. With 
the help of the new archbishoj) of St. Andrews, James Sharp, and 
of John Maitland, earl of Lauderdale, both recent converts to 
episcopacy, Charles 11. renewed the policy of the e^rly Stewarts 
of keeping Scotland under English influence, which in effect meant 
the subordination of the smaller to the larger kingdom. The 
Covenanters, who refused to worship in a Church ruled by bishops, 
were brutally persecuted, and the feeling of the people was with 
them, so that the king's poKcy became unpopular and provoked 
frequent insurrections. 

6. There was no pretence of restoring freedom to Ireland. 
Protestant and English ascendency assumed a Cavalier and Epis- 
copal rather than a Puritan shape, and the duke of Ormonde, 
the chief agent of the Irish Restoration, showed more toleration 



-I662.J CHARLES 11. 477 

"09 tlie E,omaii Catliolics than tlie Cromwelliaus had done. The 
chief problem of the Irish Restoration, however, was the ques- 
tion of the land. The Puritan adventurers had been ^. Resto- 
settled on estates that had been forfeited, partly for ration in 
rebellion against England, and partly for loyalty Ireland. 
to Charles i. They were, however, a powerful addition to the 
Protestant garrison, and it seemed dangerous to English interests 
to remove them. Accordingly, the Act of Settlement of 1661 
allowed the Puritan settlers to keep their estates, while promising 
restitution to all royalists, whether Protestant or Catholic, who 
had lost their lands for adhesion to King Charles. It was soon 
found that there was not enough land to satisfy everybody, and 
a later Act of Explanation annulled a third of the CromweUian 
grants in order to help back loyalists. This seemed a liberal policy 
to Ormonde, but the result of it was that a very small propor- 
tion of Irish soil was restored to native Irish or Catholic hands. 
Hence arose the great agrarian question of later Irish history. 
The divorce of the Irish Catholics from their land condemned them 
to hopeless poverty and intensiiied their deep sense of wrong. 
They were, however, less harshly dealt with than in Puritan times. 
The mass was again allowed, though the Catholic clergy were 
badly treated. Bishops were restored in the Protestant Church, 
which, however, kept up its Puritan traditions by way of being as 
different as possible from the CathoHc majority. 

7. Foreign policy was not greatly influenced by the Restoration 
so far as its general direction was concerned, though the different 
way in which the same policy was carried out soon ^^^^ Resto- 
made the changes seem greater than they were, ration and 
Charles ii. continued Cromwell's alliance with Louis xiv., foreign 
though the overwhelming power of that monarch was 
already recognized as threatening the balance of Europe. Two 
important results soon flowed from the French alliance. In 1662 
Charles sold the CromweUian conquest, Dunkirk, to the French. 
This act was unpoi^ular, and was unjustly set down to corrupt 
motives. Men said that Charles was more anxious to please Louis 
than protect the honour of England. The king's marriage in the 
same year was another triumph of French diploihacy. Charles 
chose as his wife Catharine of Braganza, sister of the king of 
Portugal. This country had revolted from Spain in 1640, and was 
still maintaining its independence with the help of the French. 
Louis now secured English recognition of Portugal by the marriage 
of Charles to a princess of that nation. It was a deadly offence to 



47^ CHARLES II. [1663- 

Spain, for Portugal iDecame sure of her freedom during" the next 
few years. Moreover, the rich wedding portion with which Portugal 
purchased the English alliance proved of great importance for the 
development of English trade. Besides a larg'e sum of money, 
Portugal handed over to England Tangier, on the African side of 
the Straits of Gribraltar, and the island of Bombay in India. The 
latter was handed over to the East India Company, and soon 
became the chief of its trading settlements, and the only one that 
was not held of the Mogul Empire. "With its acquisition we have 
the first faint beginnings of our Indian Empire. At present, how- 
ever, the India Company still pursued merely commercial objects. 
It became very wealthy and successful in the generation that 
followed the Restoration. 

8. Charles 11. was as anxious as Cromwell to further English 
commerce and colonies, and his brother James, duke of York, now 

. , lord high admiral, administered the navy with skill 
The rivalry , ° m. 4> x i? .t, 

of England ^^"- success. The nrst war 01 the new reign was a 

and Hoi- war for trade and empire. The commercial rivalry of 

land. England and Holland was now keener than ever. 

The renewal of the l!^avigation Act had embittered feeling between 

the two countries. Even after the Dutch had acquiesced in that, 

Dutch and English traders were fighting on their own account in 

Africa and North America. In 1665 the clamour of the English 

merchants forced England to declare war against the Dutch. 

rri. T. * t. The struggle was as obstinate as that which had taken 

The Dutch t , n i . rm nrv i i t 1 

war, 1665- place twelve years earlier. The Dutch, commanded 
1667. "by their admiral, Ruyter, were more skilful than their 

opponents, though heroes of the Civil Wars like Prince Rupert 
and Monk, now duke of Albemarle, acquired fresh credit as com- 
manders of our fleets. After two years of hard fighting the 
English, having exhausted aU their money, foolishly laid up their 
great ships in harbour, and thereby left the Dutch in temporary 
command of the sea. They availed themselves of this to sail up 
the Medway to Chatham, where they burnt three men-of-war laid 
up uselessly in the harbour, and cut off London from all communi- 
cation with the sea for several weeks. This was the more alarming 
since Louis xiv., alarmed at the power of the English navy, sup- 
ported the Dutch against us. This temporary triumph was not, 
however, due to the superiority of the Dutch so much as to the 
want of wisdom of the English. The best proof that forces were 
stiR equally balanced was that in the course of the same year (1667), 
peace was signed at Breda, by which each country was allowed 



~i6Si,] CHARLES II. 479 

Id retain possession of the territories wliicli it lield at tkat moment. 
The effect of this was to transfer the Dutch colony of New 
Amsterdam to English rule. Grranted to the king's brother, James, 
Duke of York, it took the new name of New York. Its acquisition 
was of the greatest importance for the future of English North 
America. New Amsterdam had kept asunder the New England 
group of colonies from Virginia and its neighbours. Henceforth a 
continuous row of Engiish settlements monopolized the eastern sea- 
board of Central North America. 

9. In other ways also the period of the E/estoration is important 
in the growth of our American colonies. The earlier plantations 
increased in wealth, population, and importance. The addition of 
Cromwell's conq^uest of Jamaica to Barbados and the other Eng- 
lish settlements in the West Indies, much strength- 
ened our commerce in that direction, while the further of the 
development of the slave trade made it easier to find American 
labour for the sugar plantations. Fresh colonies were ^° onies. 
also set up in the mainland of North America. The first of these 
was Carolina, established in 1663, and named, like Charlestow7i 
its capital, from Charles ii. Situated to the south of 
Virginia, in a semi-tropical climate, Carolina was from ^^^^ ^"^' 
the beginning largely dependent upon slave labour, 
especially in its southern districts. Ultimately the colony split up 
into North and South Carolina. Even more important than 
English expansion southwards was the completion of the filling up 
of the gap between New England and Virginia. The conversion 
of New Amsterdam into New Yorh had partly effected jr y k 
this ; but the settled Dutch district did not go beyond and New 
the Hudson, and the coast-land between the Hudson Jersey, 
and the Delaware were still untilled soil. The duke 
of York sold the vacant Dutch lands beyond the Hudson to Sir 
•George Carteret, who, in 1667, established therein a new colony 
called New Jersey, since Carteret was a Jersey man. The planta- 
tions of the midland district was still further developed in 1681, 
when William Penn, the son of the conq[ueror of Jamaica, obtained 
a grant of the land west of the Delaware stretching 
into the interior, and on which he settled a new colony vania^l681. 
called Pennsylvania. Penn, a gentleman of wealth, 
high position, and noble ideals, had lately joined the Society of 
Friends, and wished to find a new home for his co-religionists, who 
were as severely persecuted by the government of the Restoration 
as by that of the Commonwealth. Though Pennsylvania was his 



48o 



CHARLES II. 



ti665- 



own property, 'bemg', as it was termed, a proprietary colony, lie drew 
up a very liberal constitution for it by which a popular assembly 
was elected by ballot and religious freedom given to all who believed 
in God and the moral teaching of Christianity. He called his 
capital Philadelphia— ihe city of brotherly love— and would not 




The English Colonies 

in 

NORTH AMERICA 

under Charles II 



Eng-lJsh Miles 

lOO 



The dates mark the period of settle- 
-ment or conquest. 



Emery Walker sc. 



allow war to be waged even with the Indians, with whom the other 
colonies were constantly engaged in hostilities. The combined 
result of all these new movements was that England became one 
of the chief colonizing and maritime powers. It was gradually 
driving its old rival Holland into a secondary position. Its 
success excited the jealousy of France, which, under Louis xiv.. 



-1667.1 CHARLES 21. 481 

lirst began to devote herself to foreign trade, to the sea, anti uo 
colonies. 

10. The slow and unnoticed growth of English power in distant 
lands did not compensate for the many failiu-es of the Restoration 
government in dealing with the matters that were ji, f ii f 
immediately before it. During the disasters and mis- Clarendon, 
management of the Dutch war, London was exposed 1667. 
to two great calamities. In 1665 it was decimated by the Great 
Plague, and in 1666 half the city was burnt down by the Great 
Fire. There was a bitter outcry against the profligacy and 
corruption of the court, the blunders of the Dutch war, the sub- 
servience of the crown to the French, and the general mal- 
administration of the country. Even the loyal parliament elected 
in 1661 was beginning to grow restive, and a strong opposition, 
caUed the country party, sought to renew the policy of Pym and 
Hampden. Edward Hyde, the old associate of Falkland, earl of 
Clarendon and chancellor since the king's return, was looked 
upon as chiefly responsible for the policy of the government. 
The country party disliked him as an advocate of the preroga- 
tive. Puritans and Dissenters hated him for his jealous champion- 
ship of the Church, and called the persecuting laws of the period 
the Clarendon Code. He was more unjustly blamed for the de- 
merits of the king's foreign policy, with which he had little to do. 
Moreover, though his daughter, Anne Hyde, was the wife of the 
duke of York, the heir to the throne, he was not supported strongly 
at court, where he was looked upon as old-fashioned, slow, and 
over-scrupulous. Accordingly, when the Commons showed a desire 
to make Clarendon the scapegoat of their growing indignation, the 
king willingly gave him up. In 1667 the chancellor was dis- 
missed from office and impeached for high treason. The charges 
brought against him were so far from amounting to that crime 
that the Lords refused to commit him to prison. But Charles, 
who wished to get rid of him, recommended Clarendon to leave 
the country. Taking the king's advice, he withdrew to France. 
Thereupon parliament, taking his flight as a proof of guilt, passed 
an act for liis banishment. With his exile the first period of Charles 
ii.'s reign comes to an end. 

11. In the administration that was formed after the chancellor's 
fall, there was no single statesman who held so powerful 
a position as Clarendon had previously occupied. He |6|7_^673 
had been driveii from power by a coalition of country 
party and courtiers, and both these discordant elements were now 

2i 



482 CHARLES II. [1667- 

strongly represented in the government. Chief among them was 
George Yilliers, duke of Buckingham, son of Charles i.'s favourite, 
who, as the king's personal friend and the political ally of the 
Puritans, formed a connecting link between the two parties. 
Though able and enterprising, Buckingham had neither earnestness 
nor principle. A stronger statesman was Anthony Ashley Cooper, 
Lord Ashley, a former partisan of Cromwell's, the ablest of the 
opposition, a keen advocate of parliamentary supremacy and of 
toleration, and the best party manager of his time, though he 
was ambitious, factious, and unscrupulous. Henry Bennet, Lord 
ArKngton, a j^ompous diplomatist, and Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, 
a hot-headed Catholic, were dependents of the court ; while Lauder- 
dale, the fifth prominent minister, though working with the 
others, limited himself mainly to Scots affairs. These five gained 
an infamous notoriety as the Cabal, a word then used for the little 
groups of politicians whose secret deliberations were beginning to 
have more influence upon the conduct of affairs than the more 
formal debates of a large and heterogeneous body like the privy 
council, the traditional org'an of the executive power. The Cabal, 
however, widely differed among themselves, and were only accident- 
ally bound together by their common dislike of the old Cavalier 
party that had dominated affairs under Clarendon. They posed as 
friends of toleration at home and of peace abroad, and in both these 
matters their policy was more sound than that of their predecessors. 
In particular, they looked with suspicion on the ever-increasing 
aggressions of Louis xiv., who was again at war with Spain, and 
rapidly overrunning the Spanish Netherlands, to which he laid 
The Triple <^l^i™- ^^ behalf of his wife, the sister of the new 
Alliance, Spanish king Charles 11. In 1668 England united 

1668. with the Dutch and the Swedes to form a Triple 

Alliance to restore peace to Europe. So formidable was the com- 
bination that Louis unwillingly made peace, and surrendered many 
of his conquests. . He was bitterly mortified at the league formed 
against him, and strove with all his might to break it up. 

12. The early acts of the Cabal gave promise of better things 
than resulted from them. The ministers were, however, greedy, 
The T eatv corrupt, and divided, and did not persevere in their 
of Dover, wiser policy when their self-interest impelled them in 
1670. a contrary direction. Louis xiv. brought his influence 

to bear upon Charles 11., and in 1670 signed with him the secret 
treaty of Dover, by which Charles promised to help Louis against 
the Dutch and Spaniards, while Louis agreed to send men and 



-I673.J CHARLES II. 483 

money to assist Charles to put down opponents to his power and 
restore Catholicism to England. Charles only communicated the 
full details of this scandalous compact to Arlington and Cliii'ord, 
but Buckingham and Ashley were persuaded to agree to help the 
French against the Dutch. Louis, who looked upon the Dutch as 
mainly responsible for the Triple Alliance, now made the humilia- 
tion of the United Provinces the great object of his policy. 

13. Having stripped Holland of all her allies, Louis and Charles 
declared war against her in 1672. So mismanaged were Charles's 
finances that he could obtain funds to equip his fleet ^j^^ Dutch 
only by a discreditable refusal to repay from the war, 1672- 
Exchequer a large sum of money temporarily deposited 1673. 
there by the bankers. This measure was called the ^toj) of the 
Exchequer. Unlike former English attacks upon Holland, this 
war was not popular. Though Englishmen had no love for 
their rivals in trade, they saw that England was making her- 
seK the tool of France, whose ascendency was more dangerous 
both to our commerce and our liberty than that of a slowly 
decaying small state which was already almost beaten in the contest 
with us. The utmost sympathy was shown when the Dutch, 
attacked both by sea and land, prepared to resist Louis as they had 
resisted the Spaniards a hundred years earlier. Before long, other 
nations, dreading the advance of France, made common cause with 
tlie Dutch, so that Louis had to fight not a single state but a 
European coalition. Led by their heroic young stadtholder, William 
III., prince of Orange, a nephew of Charles i., called from private 
life to defend his country against the French and restore the power 
of the house of Orange over the Dutch Republic, the Hollanders 
held their own so well that there was no longer any danger of the 
destruction of their republic. Before long William of Orange 
showed such skill as a general and a diplomatist that he became 
the soul of the general European opposition to the overmighty 
power of France. For the next thirty years he made it the chief 
business of his life to build up coalitions and command armies 
against Louis xiv. 

14. The unpopularity of the war destroyed the influence of the 
Cabal, and rumours of Catholic intrigue and dangers to Protes- 
tantism leaked out, despite the secrecy which was carefully preserved 
as to the treaty of Dover. The Cabal now went back to its earlier 
policy of toleration at home, and as it was hopeless to ask Parlia- 
ment to relax the laws against the Dissenters, it sought to compass 
the same end by royal prerogative. Charles claimed that as king 



484 CHARLES 11, [1673- 

he possessed a power both to suspend altogether any act of 
parliament, and also to dispense in particular cases with its opera- 
tion. By virtue of these powers he issued in 1673 
ration of ^ Declaration of Indulgence, proclaiming religious 
Indulgence, freedom to all Dissenters. The Church party, still 
and tlfe fall' ^^^^^8" ^ "^^^ Commons, was very indignant at this, 
of the Cabal, while even the Protestant Dissenters looked askance at 
1673. toleration that flowed from royal prerogative only, 

especially as they saw that it was clearly granted in the interests 
of the Roman Catholics, who were popular and numerous at court. 
Charles himself had secret sympathies with the Catholics, and 
the duke of York had recently become an avowed E-omanist. A 
great cry arose that Protestantism was in danger. This soon 
broke up the ill- cemented ranks of the Cabal. Ashley, now earl of 
Shaftesbury, threw himself into violent opposition once more. In 

1673 the Protestant party hurried a Test Act through parliament, 
which required all holders of office under the crown to receive the 
Communion after the fashion of the English Church and renounce 
the doctrine of transubstantiation. Shaftesbury hotly supported 
the bill, which Charles dared not refuse to accept. Cliifford would 
not take the test, and ArKngton was driven from power. The duke 
of York laid down the admiralty rather than accept the test. In 

1674 parliament forced Charles to make peace with the Dutch. 

15. The reaction from the Cabal restored power to the old 
Cavalier party, now represented by Sir Thomas Osborne, a York- 
The minis- shire gentleman, who became earl of Danby and lord 
try of high treasurer. The Commons had confidence in 

Danby, him, because, like Clarendon, he was a good friend of 

1 67*?— 1 fi78 • • 

the Church, and indisposed to show favour either to 
Catholics or Protestant Dissenters. In foreign policy, however, 
Danby took up a different line from that which Clarendon had 
been credited with. In his distrust of France he went back to the 
principles of the Triple Alliance, though he was prevented by the 
king from actively siding with the European coalition that was 
still fighting with no great success against Louis xiv. Thus king 
and minister worked in different directions, with results that proved 
extremely discreditable to the country. Soon Charles signed 
another secret treaty with Louis, by which he promised to make 
no alliance with a foreign power without the French king's leave. 
Moreover, he and his courtiers freely took pensions and bribes from 
Louis, who naturally expected the support which he had paid for. 
Yet next year Danby raised an army to fight the French, and 



-i679.] CHARLES II. 485 

married the princess Mary of York, the next heir to the throne 
after Charles and James, to "William of Orange, the pillar of 
Protestantism and opposition to France, 

16. In great disgust at these acts of hostility, Louis signed with 
his enemies the treaty of Nijinegen in 1678, preferring to stay his 
course of victory rather than run the risk of England ^, Tpeatv 
joining his enemies. Prof oundly irritated at the in- ofNijme- 
expHcable difference between Charles's promises and ^en, 1678. 
his ministers' acts, the French king resolved no longer to waste his 
money on so shiftless a dependent. His bribes now flowed into the 
coffers of the opposition, and he roused the just indignation of the 
country party by revealing to them his secret dealings with 
Charles, to some of which Danby had been an unwilling partner. 
In December, 1678, Danby was hurled from power and threatenefd 
with impeachment, whereupon, in January, 1679, the king dissolved 
Xmrliament. It was still the. same longlived House of Commons 
that had been elected in 1661. Distrust of the king had quite 
destroyed its former excessive loyalty, but it remained to the last 
as zealous for the Church as in the early days of the Clarendon 
Code. 

17. A new trouble had already fallen upon the country during 
the last months of Danby's ministry. In 1678 a clergyman named 
Titus Gates announced that he had information that jj^ ponish 
the Roman Catholics had formed a plot to murder the Plot, 1678- 
king and restore their religious ascendency. Why a 1679. 
king so friendly to the Catholics as was Charles should have been 
assassinated by them is not easy to understand, and the character 
of the informant was so bad that it was difficult to accept his 
statement as evidence of anything. Expelled from liis ministry 
in the English Church, Gates had gone abroad and turned Catholic. 
His gross vices had brought him into trouble in his new as in his 
old faith, and he came back to England, professing a new zeal for 
the Protestant cause and a special store of information about tlie 
misdeeds of the papists. There had been so much Catholic intrigue 
that plain men might be pardoned for being credulous, and the 
secret dealings of Charles with Louis xiv. and the convert's zeal of 
the duke of York for his new faith, all naturally produced an 
excitable and suspicious condition of public opinion. Yet nothing 
can excuse the blind faith which sober men now showed in Gates's 
revelations. Gther scoundrels, seeing how profitable was the trade 
of informer, followed his example. Innocent Catholics were 
denounced, tried by venal judges before timid juries, and hurried 



486 CHARLES II. [1679- 

to the scaffold on perjured testimony. The panic resulted not only 
in the collapse of the power of Danby ; it gave the country party, 
already eager to uphold the Protestant interest, an admirahle oppor- 
tunity of forcing its way to place. Shaftesbury, its leader, made 
a clever hut unscrupulous use of the chance thus put into his hands. 
He hoped to regain authority as the saviour of England from 
popery, and did not care how many innocent persons suffered if 
he could fulfil his purpose. 

18, In March, 1679, a new parliament met. Elected under the 
panic fear of the papists, the ~ Commons were entirely in Shaftes- 
bury's hands. Two chief measures were laid before the 

CoPDus Ae^^ estates by the popular leader. One of these, a measure 
and the Ex- for securing the liberty of the subject, called the Habeas 
ARHc^^ ^^^^» Corpus Act, speedily became law, and did much good 
in making it more difficult for the crown to imprison 
innocent persons without legal warranty. The other was a bolder 
measure, namely, an 'Exclusion Bill, to keep the Catholic duke of 
York out of the succession to the throne on his brother's death. 
Besides this, parliament renewed the impeachment of Danby, who 
was not very fairly regarded as responsible for a policy which he 
had done his best to prevent. 

19. In July, 1679, Charles dissolved parliament, in the hope of 
saving his brother's chance of the succession. Though fresh 
Wh* d elections w'ere held at once, the temper of the new 
Tories, House of Commons was reported to be so unruly that 
1679. Charles feared to summon it to transact business. 
The friends of the Exclusion Bill, therefore, sent up petitions to 
the king, urging him to allow parliament to meet. From this 
they were called Petitioners. But there were signs that the 
violence of the ultra-Protestant party had already begun to pro- 
duce a reaction. The old devotion to monarchy showed itseK in 
the friends of hereditary succession drawing up counter petitions 
to the crown, in which they expressed their abhorrence of the 
petitioners' attempt to interfere with the royal prerogative. For 
this reason these people were styled Ahhorrers. As in 1642, the 
nation was , splitting up into two parties, and the Petitioners of 
1679 were like the Boundheads of the earlier year, whilst the 
Abhorrers were the same as the Cavaliers. Shorter and more con- 
venient nicknames were soon found for the two parties than ttese. 
The Petitioners were called Whigs, a nickname first applied to the 
Scottish Covenanters ; while the Abhorrers were described as Tories, 
a word first used to distinguish the Catholic rebels and outlaws in 



-i68r.| CHARLES II. 487 

Ireland. Though both in tlieir origin the insulting epithets of 
opponents, the two short words took root, and the two great parties 
into which the nation was henceforth divided were proud to be 
described as Whigs and Tories. A little later the strong Church 
party, the Laudians, got the nickname of Klgli u- i^ch 
Church ; while the more Puritanical, or liberal, section and Low 
of Churchmen were spoken of as Low Church. Tory Church, 
and High Church, Whig and Low Church, were virtually synony- 
mous terms. 

20. The outlook long remained stormy. In 1679 the extreme 
Scottish Presbyterians, or Covenanters, murdered Archbishop 
Sharp, and rose in revolt against king and bishops. « ^^i * 
By Shaftesbury's advice the task of suppressing the Bothwell 
revolt was entrusted to James, duke of Monmouth, Bridge, 

1 fi7Q 

the eldest of the king's numerous illegitimate children. 
Monmouth defeated the Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge, over the 
Clyde, near Glasgow. This broke the back of the rising, and the duke 
of York, sent down by his brother to Scotland, punished the rebels 
very sternly. He drove away from Scotland the earl of Argyll, who 
aspired to play the i^art of his father, the Argyll beheaded in KJGl. 

21. Monmouth was a popular but showy and shallow j)erson, 

and Shaftesbury, who treated him as a tool, was glad to use him 

as much as he could. There was even talk that he 

The Lords 
was Charles's lawful son, and should be the next king reject the 

instead of the duke of York. Charles, however, upheld Exclusion 

his brother as loyally as he could, though in general ' 1680. 

ihe king had good sense enough to see that it was not wise for 

him to set himself too strongly against public opinion. Thus he 

gave way to Shaftesbury and the Whigs, though he hated their 

views, and had no faith in the popish plot. After keeping back 

the parliament elected in 1679 for more than a year, Charles at 

last allowed it to assemble in October, 1680. The Commons at 

once carried the Exclusion Bill, but the Lords rejected it, mainly 

through the advice of Lord Halifax, who boasted that lie was 

neither a Whig nor a Tory, but a Trimmer between the two. 

22. In January, 1681, Charles dissolved parliament, and met 
another one in March at Oxford. Passion was now so deeply 
aroused that the Whig members rode to Oxford with ^j^^ Oxford 
bands of armed followers, like the Mad Parliament of Parliament, 
1258. It looked as if another civil war was absolutely ^^^^• 
inevitable. The Commons clamoured for exclusion, and the king, 
backed up by the Church party, would not give up hereditary right. 



dS8 CHARLES Jl. [1685. 

After a short but violent session, Cliarles once more dissolved his 
parliament. It was the last that met during his reign. 

23. The violence and factiousness of Shafteshury had overshot 
the mark. The panic of the Popish Plot had died down, and 
The Rve Charles, skilfully though selfishly, waiting on events. 
House Plot, had given the Tories time to rally. A strong Tory re- 
1683. action set in which soon involved Shaftesbury in dis- 
grace. The Tories now showed themselves as cruel as the Whigs 
had been. Shaftesbury and Monmouth fled to Holland, where the 
Whig leader soon died. The extreme Whigs in their disgust 
formed a conspiracy called the i^^e House Plot, which aimed 
at assassinating Charles as he rode past a house called the Rye 
House on his way from London to I»J'ewmarket. The plan was 
detected, and its chief authors executed. Some of the Whig 
leaders, including Lord E-ussell, the eldest son of the earl of 
Bedford, and Algernon Sidney, the republican son of the earl of 
Leicester, were accused of complicity in the conspiracy. Thoug'h 
the evidence against them was weak, they were condemned and 
executed. They were looked upon as martyrs to the popxdar cause. 

24. The Tories remained in power for the rest of Charles ii.'s 
reign. The reaction against the tumults of the period of the Popish 

„ Plot made the king as popular at the end of his life 

reaction, as he had been in the first enthusiasm of the E/estora- 
1682-1685, tion, and when he was suddenly cut off in February, 
death of 1685, he died generally lamented. In some ways his 
Charles II., popularity was very lightly g-ained. Genial, good- 
^®^^* tempered, and easy of access, he knew how to make 

himself pleasant to his subjects ; but he was idle, improvident, 
selfish, extravagant, and immoral. The dissoluteness of his private 
life set the worst of examples to his people. He sold himself 
to Louis XIV., and would willingly have restored CathoKcism and 
arbitrary rule had he the power to do so. Yet Charles was too 
idle and careless to make the consistent effort necessary to carry 
out a strong personal policy of his own. Abler and much clearer- 
headed than any other Stewart king, Charles had the shrewdness 
to see things as they really were. He perceived that he could not 
safely take up the line of his father, and, being determined to die 
on his throne, he learnt in some ways to play the part of a con- 
stitutional king. Alone of his house he recognized the force of 
public opinion, and he was thus able, thoug'h not from high 
motives, to save England from the danger of more revolutions 
when her greatest need was quiet and rest. 



CHAPTER V 
JAMES II. (1685-1688) 

Chief Dates r 

1685. Accession of James 11. ; Revolts of Argyll and Monmouth. 
1688. Declaration of Indulgence and fall of James 11. 

1. The Tory reaction of the last years of Charles 11. 's reign still 
flowed so strongly that the duke of York was proclaimed James 11. 
without a murmur of opposition. The new king was 
neither so able nor so attractive as his brother. He Character 
was careful, businesslike, and a good administrator, 
and had sacrificed much through his devotion to the Catholic faith. 
Like Charles i., he was obstinate, tenacious, and lacking both in 
straightforwardness and insight. Yet even James could not but 
recognize that his peaceful accession was due to the loyalty of the 
High Church and Tory party. Though he went to mass in state, 
he professed to regard his religion as a private matter. He allowed 
himself to be crowned after the Protestant rite by William San- 
croft, archbishop of Canterbury, and promised to uphold the Church 
because Churchmen were always loyal. He kept his brother's Tory 
ministers in office, and the first few months of his reign were simply 
a continuation of the last years of Charles 11. 

2. James was strong enough not to be afraid of public op '^ ion. 
He at once assqpibled both the English and the Scottish parlia- 
ments, and found steady support from both these j, pari la- 
bodies. The Scots parKament passed fresh laws ment of 
against the Covenanters, while the high Tory majority 1685. 

in the English House of Commons voted James a revenue of 
i;l, 900,000 a year for life. This sum was so large that it made 
James almost independent of future parliamentary grants. Parlia- 
ment released Danby from liis long imprisonment ; the informers 
whose perjured testimony had brought to the scaffold so many 
innocent Catholics, were sought out and punished. Titus Gates 
was whipped so cruelly that his survival seemed almost a miracle. 

3. The peaceful accession of James filled with despair the 

489 



490 JAMES II. [1685. 

Wliig refug'ees in Holland. Seeing- that the new king could not 
be overthrown by peaceful means, they fell back on treason. In 
the summer of 1685 two small groups of exiles landed 
bellion, '^^ Britain, hoping to stir up rebellions. One of these 

1685. ^as led by the earl of Argyll, who landed in the Camp- 

bell country of the western Highlands in the expectation of raising 
his clansmen. He had some success in this, but his associates 
failed to excite a revolt among the Covenanters of Ayrshire, and 
the expedition was so badly managed that it soon collapsed. Argyll, 
like his father, was executed as a traitor, and the persecution of 
the Covenanters became more brutal than ever, 

4, The chief effort of the exiles was directed to the south-west 
of England. In June the duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme 
Monmouth's ■^^8'^^' i^ Dorsetshire, declaring that he was Charles ii.'s 
pebellion, lawful son and rightful king- of England. A large 
^^^^* force of Puritan peasants and miners gathered round 
him, and he became so strong that he was able to advance through 
Somerset towards Bath and Bristol. Both these towns, how- 
ever, refused to receive him, and he was compelled to retire 
to Bridgwater, closely pursued by the king's army, commanded 
by the earl of Peversham, under whom was John, Lord Churchill, 
the ablest soldier of his time. Monmouth gallantly resolved 
to surprise Peversham's troops in their camp at Sedgmoor, a 
few miles east of Bridgwater. After a long night march the 
rebel army attacked Peversham in the early morning of July 6. 
They found the royalists well prepared to meet them, and Mon- 
mouth's cavalry fled in a panic. The raw infantry gallantly 
stood their ground, but they were outflanked and outgeneralled, 
and at last utterly routed in the last pitched battle fought on 
English soil. Monmouth himself was captured a few days later, 
hiding in a ditch from his pursuers. On July 15 he was beheaded 
on Tower Hill. The most cruel veng-eance was wreaked upon the 
rebels. Besides many executions immediately after the battle, a 
whole host of victims was condemned by Chief Justice Jefferies, 
whose circuit for the trial of the rebels became notorious as the 
Bloody Assize. On his return JefPeries was rewarded by a peerage 
and his elevation to the office of lord chancellor. 

5. James 11. was now at the height of his power. He had 
been so successful that he began to forget the narrow basis on 
which his throne rested. He was naturally impatient at the dis- 
abilities stiU imposed by law on those who held his faith. It 
seemed to him unworthy that he should be ruling England and 



1685.] 



JAMES J I. 



491 




492 JAMES 11. [1685- 

worshipping freely after the Catholic fashion while his brother 
Catholics were iinable to practise their religion lawfully or to 
hold the meanest office under the crown. Accordingly, 
between ^® asked the parliament to repeal the Test Act, and 

James and was much annoyed to be met with a blank refusal, 
the Tories. Parliament, however, was even more loyal to the 
Church and to Protestantism than to the crown. It believed that 
the Test Act was more than ever necessary now that a Roman 
Catholic occupied the throne. In great disgust James dissolved 
parliament, and dismissed the Tory ministers whom he had inherited 
from his brother. The result was a complete breach between 
James and those who had given him the throne. 

6; James was now treading in his father's footsteps. He 
appointed as his chief adviser Robert Spencer, earl of Sunderland, a 
The di e - statesman of great ability and foresight, but selfish, 
ing and the corrupt, and unprincipled, and not scrupling to profess 
suspending \\^ conversion to the Roman Catholic faith in order 
to please the king. Visions of a Catholic and absolutist 
restoration began to float before the mind of James and his advisers. 
The first steps towards this were won by obtaining from subservient 
judges decisions that enabled the king to override the laws which 
parliament had refused to repeal. Even in Charles 11. 's days there 
had been much talk of the king possessing a disjpensing power 
which enabled him to stay the operation of a law in any par- 
ticular case, and a suspending power by which he could tem- 
porarily suspend the whole operation of a statute when the interest 
of the state seemed to require it. It was by virtue of these 
powers that Charles 11. had issued his Declaration of Indulgence 
in 1672. James now appointed a Roman Catholic named Sir 
Edward Hales as colonel of one of his regiments. Hales was 
prosecuted by his coachman for illegally holding office without 
receiving the sacrament or taking' the oath of supremacy. In 
June, 1686, the judge decided that Hales's commission was lawful, 
since the king- had granted him a dispensation from these obliga- 
tions. Fortified with this decision, James pushed his dispensing 
I)Ower so far as to appoint many Catholics to civil and military 
posts. Before long he even g-ave offices in the Church to avowed 
Romanists. He required the University of Cambridge to give the 
degree of M.A. to a Benedictine monk named Francis, whom he 
dispensed from taking the usual oaths. He ordered the fellows of 
Magdalen CoUege, Oxford, to elect as their president a Roman 
Catholic of bad character, though the office of president of th© 



-1688.J JAMES II. 493 

college was open only to clergy of the English Church. He strove 
to stifle the miu'murings that arose by establishing a new Court of 
High Commission. This was an avowedly illegal act, and directly 
opposed to the statute of the Long Parliament, which had declared 
such commissions unlawful. A large army was enlisted, many of 
whose ofiicers were Roman Catholics, and was encamped on Hounslow 
Heath to overawe the Londoners. 

7. James embarked on a definite policy of undermining Pro- 
testantism and the constitution. The Court of High Commission, 
of which Jefferies was the leading spirit, dealt out ^, court of 
stern but illegal punishment to all who went against High Com- 
the king's will. It deprived the vice-chancellor of mission. 
Cambridge of his office, because he resisted the royal mandate to 
give a degree to Francis. At Oxford it ejected the fellows oi 
Magdalen because they declined to choose a popish president. 

8. A great cry arose that Protestantism was in danger. Not 
only in England were the fortunes of the reformed religion now 
imperilled. In 1685 James's ally, Louis xiv., had ^^ 
reyoked the Edict of Nantes by which the French cation of 
Hugiienots had for a century enjoyed toleration, the Edict of 
Tens of thousands of French Protestants, exiled from 1535^^' 
their country for their loyalty to their faith, sought 

refuge in England and other Protestant lands. Their presence in 
our midst quickened the deep hatred and distrust of popery that 
had so long been among the rooted convictions of Englishmen. 
Even the High Churchmen, who had so long made a religion of 
loyalty, began to grow restive. They were not prepared to allow 
the king to use his position as head of the Church to ruin the body 
of which he was supreme governor. 

9. James's chief difficulty in carrying out his plans was that 
there were not enough Roman Catholics in England to form a 
strong party. He tried to make up for this by concili- 
ating the oppressed Catholics of Ireland, and appointed ^^ Ireland, 
as lord-lieutenant of Ireland the Catholic earl of 
TyrconneU, who began to assail that Protestant ascendency on which 
English rule in Ireland was based. Irish help, however, did James 
more harm than good in England, and gradually the king saw that 
his best chance of overthrowing the Church was by uniting the 
Protestant Dissenters, whom hitherto he had severely persecuted, 
■with liis Roman Catholic followers. 

10. In 1687 and 1688 James issued two declarations of indulgence 
by which by his own authority he suspended all the laws against 



494 JAMES II. 1 1688. 

both Roman Catholics and Dissenters. Very few of the English 
Dissenters were blind enough to accept the king's lead. They 

had no reason to love the dominant and persecuting 
ration of Church, but they saw that the Church was the chief 
Indulgence, bulwark of Protestantism, and that its overthrow 

would be followed by the extension to England of the 
persecution that so sorely afflicted their brethren in Erance and 
Scotland. Thus they refused to become accomplices in the restora- 
tion of arbitrary power and popery in England, and prepared to 
take sides with their old enemies in the defence of the liberties of 
England and the Protestant religion. The crisis came in 1688, 
when James gave orders that his second Declaration of Indulgence 
should be read in all churches on the first two Sundays in June. 
Archbishop Sancroft, an extreme Tory and High Churchman, took 
counsel with six of his brethren, of whom Ken, the holy bishop of 
Bath and WeUs, was the most important. The'seueri hishojps agreed 
to petition the king not to force the clergy to break the law. 
James was very angry at the prelates presuming to question his 
acts, and became furious when the great majority of the clergy, 
inspired by the bishops' resistance, refused to read the declaration. 
He brought the seven bishops to trial for publishing a seditious 
libel. On June 30 a London jury acquitted them of this ridiculous 
charge amidst the universal rejoicing of the whole nation. The 
seven bishops became popular heroes for having led the way to 
resistance against the popish king. 

11. While the trial of the bishops was stiU. pending, another event 
had occurred which intensified the need for resistance. Hitherto 

. many men had borne with James's doings, since 

tion to li® w^s an old man, and on his death his throne would 

William of have gone to his Protestant daughter, the princess 
range. Mary of Orange, the grand- daughter of Clarendon. 

But on June 10 a son, named James, was born to the king and his 
second wife, Mary of Modena. The new prince of Wales would of 
course be brought up as a Catholic, and thus there was every 
prospect of a long continuance of popish rulers. Accordingly, on 
the very day of the bishops' acquittal, seven leading men united in 
sending a letter to Mary's husband, WiUiam of Orange, inviting 
him to come to England to save the land from popery and arbitrary 
power. Not only Whig magnates like the earl of Devonshire, but 
Tories so staunch as Danby signed this appeal. 

12. A new European war was breaking out, and William of 
Orange, the leader of the coalition which he had formed against 



1688.1 JAMES II. 495- 

the French, was eag-er to g-et Eng-land ou his side. He accepted 
the invitation, and on November 5 anded in Torhay at the head of 
a Dutch army. All England fell away from James, The fall of 
who strove, when it was too late, to conciliate his James II., 
angry subjects by dissolving the Court of High 1688-1689. 
Commission. William was welcomed by the gentry of the west, 
and advanced slowly from Exeter to London. James found that it 
was useless to attempt resistance. His own daughter, the princess 
Anne ; his favourite soldier. Lord ChuLrchill, deserted him ; and as 
the Dutch approached London, he was forced to flee to France. 

13. Once master of the capital, William issued writs summoning 
a Convention Parliament. Like the body that restored Charles 11., 
this convention was in all but name and form a real 
parHament. It met on January 22, 1689. Though Jlon,?ndthe 
the majority was fiercely Whig, there was a strong Declaration 
body of Tories returned, who, now that James's flight Jggi^'^^' 
had dissipated their worst alarms, began to have 
scruples agaiust resisting or deposing the king by divine right. 
They i)roposed that James should remain nominal king while 
WiUiam became regent. But this was an absurd compromise that 
pleased nobody, and finally the Convention took up a more decided 
line. It voted that James had abdicated the throne by his flight to 
France, and that the throne had thereby become vacant. It drew 
up a Declaration of Right, wherein the worst of James's acts were 
denounced as illegal. The declaration was presented to WiUiam 
and Mary, who ratified it. Thereupon the throne was offered to 
William and Mary as joint sovereigns. On their acceptance of 
the throne, the " Grlorious Revolution," as it was caUed, was com- 
pleted. The Stewart attempt to set uj) king above parliament 
w^as finally defeated. Working out still further the principles of 
the men of 1641 and 1660, the Convention set up a monarchy, 
created by parliament, and responsible to it. It thus destroyed 
the old Tory tlieory of divine hereditary right, and made the king 
an ofiicial, subject, like other officials, to dismissal if he neglected to 
perform liis duties. Thus parliament became the strongest element 
in the English state, and the seventeenth-century struggle of king 
and his subjects was finally ended by the triumph of the parliament 
over the crown. 



CHAPTER VI 
WILLIAM III. (1689-1702) AND MARY (1689-1694) 

Chief Dates : 

1689. Accession of William and Mary ; Bill of Rights and Toleration 

Act. 

1690. Battle of the Boyne. 

1692. Battle of La Hougue and Massacre of Gleucoe, 

1694. Death of Queen Mary. 

1696. First Whig Ministry. 

1697. Treaty of Ryswick. 

1698. Failure of the Darien scheme ; First Partition Treaty. 

1700. Second Partition Treaty. 

1701. Act of Settlement. 

1702. Grand Alliance formed ; death of William iii. 

1. On February 13, 1689, William iii. and Mary were put in 
possession of the throne. Much still had to he done hefore the 
Theacees- changes made necessary by the flig-ht of James ii. 
sion of were completed. To carry some of these out, the 

William ajid Convention, following- the precedent of the convention 
the Bill of which restored Charles ii., was turned into a regular 
Rights, parliament. It set to work to pass new laws which 

should make it impossible for any future king to 
govern on the lines of James ii. The most important of these 
was the Bill of Rights, which re-enacted the Declaration of Rights 
in a more formal fashion. It declared illegal many of James's 
unconstitutional acts, such as levying money and keeping a 
standing army without the sanction of parliament, and stated 
that subjects had a right to petition the king, and that parliaments 
should be freely elected, frequently held, and have free speech. 
It declared the suspending power altogether illegal, and the dis- 
pensing power " as it hath been exercised of late." Its most 
important clauses, however, were those which bore upon the future. 
It enacted that "for the safety and welfare of this Protestant 
kingdom," aU persons "who profess the popish religion or marry 
a papist, shall be incapable to inherit or possess the crown." 
496 



1689.] WILLIAM III. AND MARY 497 

2. Other laws of scarcely less importance were passed by the 
Convention. A Mutiny Act was drawn up, which authorized the 
king" to maintain a standing army and enforce dis- _,, -_ . 
cipline in it by martial law. This act was only passed Act, and the 
for a short period, so that the kins' was forced to go revenue, 
every year to parliament for its renewal. This was ^°°^* 

a more excellent means of keeping William dependent on parlia- 
ment than the abstract resolutions of the Bill of Rights. Even 
more effective, however, was the action of parliament with regard 
to the royal revenue. Whilfe Charles 11. and James 11. had re- 
ceived a gi'ant of a large income for life, so that they were able 
to carry on the government in a fashion without having further 
recourse to the Commons, parliament cut down the life revenue of 
the crown to very modest limits, and resolved to make parliamentary 
grants from year to year only. This action resulted in the necessity 
for annual sessions of parliament ever since. Were parliament 
not to assemble, the Mutiny Act would lapse, so that the standing 
army would become illegal, while most taxes would come to an end, 
for no one would have any obligation to pay them. 

3. Another law, passed in 1689, was the Toleration Act, which 
gave Protestant Dissenters who believed in the Trinity the right 
to worship freely in their own chapels. It was not The Tolera- 
a broad or comprehensive measure of toleration, tion Act, 
Unitarians were excluded from it, and the penal 

laws against Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters still 
remained on the statute-book. Yet it practically carried the 
principle against which nearly all religious parties had been 
fighting since the Reformation. It recognized that EngKshmen 
did not an think the same way in matters of religion, and allowed 
persons who disagreed with the established system of the Church 
to assemble for worship after their own fashion. The Dissenters 
still remained under all sorts of disabilities, but they had at last 
won the right to exist. Gradually the spirit of the times changed, 
and extended the benefits of the Toleration Act to those who were 
expressly excepted from it. But many a battle had still to be 
fought before complete religious liberty was won. 

4. The High Church party disliked the Toleration Act, and 
were afraid of the results of the revolution. Though many of 
them had deserted James in his hour of need, they soon became 
disaffected with the rule of a king who gave toleration to Dis- 
senters and was a Presbyterian in his own country. They were 
still a very powerful body, and were strong enough to prevent 

2k 



498 WILLIAM III AND MARY [1689- 

WiUiam carrying out Ms wisli to cliange tlie constitution of tlie 
Cliurcli in such a fashion that it might include some of the mode- 
TheLow ^^^^ Dissenters, and particularly the Presbyterians. 

Church Some of the High Church leaders still upheld the 

triumph doctrines of divine right and passive obedience, and 

schism of denied that William had any right to the throne, 
the Non- When called upon to take an oatli of allegiance to 

Jurors. ^^ ^^^ sovereign, many of the clergy refused to 

accept it. Among them were Archbishop Bancroft, of Canterbury, 
and Bishop Ken, of Bath and Wells, and several hundred parish 
clergymen. All these were driven from their offices, and the 
bishoprics thus made vacant were filled up by William from the 
Low Church party, which was enthusiastically upon his side. 
The new archbishop of Canterbury, TiUotson, was the leader of 
the Low Church, and much disliked by the High Churchmen for 
his wish to widen the limits of the Church by bringing, some of 
the Dissenters within it. Those who refused to swear allegiance 
to William were called the Non- Jurors. The more extreme among 
them broke off all relations with the Church, and held services of 
their own. This schism of the Non-Jurors was, however, never very 
formidable, since few laymen followed the clergy who left the 
Church. And the seceders were only a minority, even among the 
High Church clergy. The majority took the oaths without giving 
up their old theories, and remained very hostile to the Church 
policy of the new king. Many of them soon became Jacobites, or 
partisans of King James, and they were the more formidable, 
since they still had a great hold over the people. Thus, even 
in England, the revolution was not carried through without grave 
difficulties. It was still harder to establish the power of William 
and Mary in Ireland and Scotland. 

5. Ireland supported James 11. long after he was expelled from 
England. His deputy in Ireland, Tyrconnell, had already destroyed 
Jams 's Protestant ascendency in Ireland, and, with the flight 

powor up- of James, the last restraint upon his zeal was removed, 
held in Hitherto James had looked with suspicion upon the' 

Irish movement, because, though he sympathized with 
the Irish as Catholics, he had no wish to help them to throw off 
English rule altogether. Now, however, James had to accept any 
allies he could get, and allow them to act as they thought best. In 
March, 1689, James himseK landed in Ireland, bring-ing with liim 
some French troops. He summoned an Irish parliament to 
Dublin, the great majority of which was Catholic. It showed a 



-1 690. J WILLIAM III AND MARY 499 

bitter hatred to England and Protestantism. It repealed the 
Act of Settlement of 1661, by which the greater part of Irish 
land had been confirmed to English and Protestant owners. It 
passed an Act of Attainder, which condemned more than two 
thousand partisans of William of Orange. 

6. The scattered Irish Protestants of the south were forced to 
submit to James and the Catholics ; but in Ulster, where the 
Protestants were numerous, they at once took arms 

in favour of King WUliam and the Protestant Siege of 
religion. The two Ulster towns of Londonderry t^e battle of 
and Ennisliillen were the chief centres of resistance. Newtown 
King James's army soon besieged Derry, and pressed ^q^q^' 
the garrison hard. The walls were weak, and pro- 
visions soon ran short, but the Protestants held out with great 
stubbornness. Sliips laden with provisions were sent from England 
for their relief, but the CathoKc army had tlu-owji a boom across 
the river Foyle, so that it seemed impossible for vessels to sail up 
to the town. However, on July 30, when the garrison was almost 
desperate from want of food, a merchant ship sailed up the river, 
and managed to break through the obstruction. Her stores re- 
moved all danger of starvation, and the CathoKcs, losing heart at 
the unexpected reKef afforded to their enemies, at once raised the 
siege. Three days later, the men of EnniskiUen defeated another 
Catholic army in the battle of Newtown Butler. 

7. Despite these successes, the Irish Protestants were too few 
to hold their own permanently against the CathoKcs. Their only 
chance lay in obtaining help from England, and gattle of 
luckUy for them, this was not long in coming, the Boyne, 
William saw that if James kept his hold on Ireland ^^^O. 

he would soon attempt to win back England also. He therefore 
sent an English army, under General Schomberg, a French 
Protestant refugee, to fight against James in Ireland. But 
sickness broke out in his army, and he was not able to accom- 
plish anything. Next year (1690) William himself undertook 
the conquest of Ireland. Landing at Carrickfergus, he advanced 
southwards towards Dublin. James resolved to hold against 
him the line of the river Boyne, which, dividing the counties 
of Louth and IMeath, runs into the sea just below Drogheda. 
On July 1 the battle of the Boyne was fought. Schomberg 
was killed in the fight, but William's troops forced the passage of 
the river, and drove the Catholics in a panic towards Dublin. James 
fled to France; William occupied the capital, and conquered 



500 ' WILLIAM IIL AND MARY [1689- 

tlie greater part of Ireland. The Catholics now stood on the 
defensive, and made their last stand at Limerick. The forti- 
fications there were as feeble as those of Derry, but the stout 
spirit of the defenders enabled them to hold their own. Towards 
the end of the summer "William returned to England without 
having taken Limerick. 

8. In June, 1691, the Dutch general, Grinkel, captured Athlone, 
which commanded the passage over the Shannon. This enabled 

him to invade Connaught, where, on July 12, he 
testant eon- defeated the Irish army at the battle of Aughrim. 
quest of Before long all western Ireland was overrun, and for 

16^1^" a second time the Catholics stood at bay behind the 

weak walls of Limerick. This time further resistance 
was useless, and Grinkel offered easy conditions in order t"o bring 
the war to an end. In October the Irish accepted the treaty of 
Limerich, by which it was agreed to allow all the Irish soldiers 
who chose to abandon their country to take ship for France. The 
Catholics who took the oath of allegiance to William were promised 
forgiveness, and were guaranteed the same liberty to hear mass that 
they had been allowed in the days of Charles 11. But the Irish 
parliament was now once more a purely Protestant body, and was 
desperately afraid of the Catholics, who had so nearly overthrown 
Protestant ascendency. It declared that Ginkel had gone beyond 
his powers in making these promises, and meanly refused to be 
bound by the treaty. Eager to have revenge on the Catholics, 
the Irish parliament restored Protestant ascendency in a more 
cruel fashion than either Strafford or Cromwell had maintained 
it. Gradually it built up a Penal Code of extreme severity, 
which took away from the Catholics all political rights, reduced 
them to poverty by taking away their lands, and barely allowed 
them the exercise of their religion. 

9. In Scotland the revolution followed the course of events in 
England rather than that in Ireland. James 11. had set himseK 
Therevo- ag£(,inst Scottish popular opinion even more than he 
lution in had gone against the wishes of his southern subjects, 

eo and. ^^^ ^-j^^ Scots rejoiced greatly when the Eng'lish 
drove him out. A Convention of the Scottish estates met in 
Edinburgh, and resolved that James vii. had forfeited the Scottish 
crown. A Claim of Bight was drawn up which declared that 
prelacy was an insupportable grievance and ought to be abolished. 
William and Mary accepted the throne, and agreed to carry out 
ihe wishes of the Convention. In 1690 the General Assembly 



'I691.J WILLIAM III. AND MARY 50I 

of tlie Soots Church, met for the first time since the Cromwellian 
conquest, and carried out the restoration of the Presbyterian 
system. The bishops and their followers were forced to set up a 
separate Church of their own, which was strongly Jacobite and 
bitterly persecuted. But the abolition of episcopacy in the Scottish 
Church made it possible for Scotland to be governed much more in 
accordance with Scottish ideas than it had been in Stewart times. 

10, There was fighting before the revolution was completed 

in Scotlcvud. Jolin Graham, of Claverhouse, whom James had 

made Yiscount Dundee, withdrew from the Convention „ , ., „ 

1 . , , T , Battle or 

m disgust, and caUed upon the Highland clans to Killie- 

uphold the cause of the Stewarts. The Highlanders ^^«q^^®» 

cared little about the disputes between bishops and 

presbyters, Jacobites and Williamites. The revolution meant for 

them the restoration of the earl of Argyll, the son of the earl 

executed in 1685, to the chieftainship of his clan. The smaller 

clans, such as the Macdonalds and Came^rons, had long been 

afraid of the Campbells, and willingly rose in revolt to prevent 

the danger of a renewal of Campbell domination. Accordingly a 

large army gathered together from the Tory clans who hated the 

Whig Campbells. To these Graham stood as his kinsman Montrose 

had stood to their fathers. But though he showed great capacity 

as a general, his career was too short to enable him to rival the 

deeds of Montrose. After various wanderings, Dundee and his 

Highlanders took up a position in the Perthshire Highlands near 

Blair Atholl. The Lowland army of King WiUiam, under the 

Highland general Mackay, marched against them through the 

ipass of Killiecrankie. Soon after Mackay had made his way 

through the pass, the army of Dundee went forth to meet him 

on July 27, 1689. The Lowlanders gave way before the fierce 

Highland charge, but Dundee was slain in the moment of victory, 

and Mackay rallied his troops so effectively that, after a few days, 

the Highlanders became weary of fighting, and went home with 

their spoils. 

11. The break-up of the Highland host made WilKam undis- 
puted king of Scots. The Highlands were then gradually pacified. 
Though the work was slow, it was at length accom- ^^^^ ^^^ 
pUshed, and amnesty was promised to all those who, sacre of 
before the end of 1691, would take oaths to Hve f^^^°^' 
peaceably under King William. Most of the chief- 
tains made their submission, but one of the heads of a branch of 
the Macdonald clan, Maclan of Glencoe, made it a point of honour 



502 WILLIAM III AND MARY [1689- 

to liold out as long as lie could, though within a few days of the 
time fixed, he took the oath to William. The chief adviser of 
William for Scotch affairs was John Dalrjmple, called the Master 
of Stair, because he was the eldest son of Yiscount Stair. He was 
a Lowlander anxious to teach Highlanders to respect the law, and 
he thought that Maclan's neglect to take the oath gave him a 
good pretext for reading the clansmen a much-needed lesson. 
Accordingly he persuaded William, who knew nothing of the facts, 
that it was desirable " for the vindication of public justice to 
extirpate that set of thieves," meaning thereby the Macdonalds of 
Glencoe. The order was carried out by a detachment of soldiers 
from Argyll's own regiment, who, as Campbells, were the natural 
enemies of the Macdonalds. The dalesmen of Glencoe were so 
unsuspicious that they entertained the soldiers with great hospi- 
tality. Suddenly, on the early morning of February 13, 1692, the 
Campbells fell upon their hosts, and brutally put them to the 
sword. This deed of blood was called the Massacre of Glencoe. 
It excited such indignation that William was forced to dismiss the 
Master of Stair from his service. WiUiam himself was severely 
blamed, but the real guilt rather fell upon Dalrymple and the 
Campbells. 

12. A general European war had broken out on the eve of 
William's expedition to England. Since the treaty of ISTijmegen 
The war ^^ 1678, Louis xiv. had provoked the indignation of 
against all his neig-hbours by a series of wanton attacks upon 
France, them. William of Orange had striven for many years 

1689-1697. I {> T T • J T • TT 

to lorm a general league against Louis xiv. He 
welcomed his accession to the English throne chiefly because it 
gave him the hope of adding England to the coalition against the 
French. Louis's own action in supporting James 11. excited so 
much indignation in England that William found it an easy task 
to persuade his new subjects to enter upon war against France. 
This struggle lasted from 1689 to 1697. Though HoUand, Bran- 
denburg, Spain, the Empire, and many smaller powers were allied 
with England against France, Louis was still able to withstand this 
formidable coalition. 

13. The French won every battle in the Netherlands, and 
even at sea were able to give the allies much trouble. Though 
England and Holland, the two greatest naval powers, were united, 
the French admiral, TourviUe, won, on June 30, 1690, a brilliant 
victory over their combined fleets off Beachy Head. This success 
made it easy for Louis to send help to the Catholics in Ireland. 



-1697.] WILLIAM III. AND MARY 503 

He also thought of invading England, being encouraged to do so 
not only by avowed Jacobites, but also by some treacherous ministers 
and generals of William himself. So long as the Battles of 
French retained the command of the sea, England Beaehy 
was exposed to real danger. However, on May 19, ^ndLa^^^^' 
1692, Admii-al Russell decisively defeated the French Hougue, 
navy under Tourville off La Hougue, in Normandy, 1692. 
Henceforth the English and Dutch retained the command of the 
Channel, though the French grievously harried English commerce 
for the rest of the war. 

14. On land the cliief fighting* was in the Netherlands. Every 
summer William took command of the allied army and did his 
best to withstand the French. Every year he was p » 
beaten in a pitched battle, but he had a wonderful Ryswick, 
power of rallying liis army after defeat, so that the 1697. 
French progress was very slow, despite their victories. As time 
went on, William became more successful, and in 1695 he managed 
to capture the strong" fortress of Namur. The two sides were now 
fighting on such equal terms that they soon got weary of con- 
tinuing a costly and unprofitable war. At last, in 1697, peace was 
made at Rysivich, near the Hague. By it Louis restored the 
conquests he had made during the war, and agreed to recognize 
William as king of England. It was not a very glorious peace for 
the allies, but it was the first treaty which Louis had signed by 
which he had not gained large additions to his dominions. His 

. power was still very great, but it had ceased to grow. This was 
largely due to the fact that England had definitely ranged herself 
on the side of the enemies of France. One of the most important 
results of the revolution was the increased part which England 
took in foreign politics. Under the guidance of the great states- 
man who was now her king, she had set limits to the power of 
France, and again won for herself the position of a leading 
European power. 

15. During the war England was exposed to many difficulties. 
In particular the cost of the war was so enormous that it involved 
new expedients for raising money. Fresh taxes were 

imposed, among them being a Land Tax, which the pQjjgy^ 
country gentlemen bitterly opposed. But it was soon 
found quite impossible to raise enough money year by year to meet 
the expenses of the campaigns. Charles Montague, chancellor of 
the exchequer, was forced to borrow large sums of money. From 
these loans began our National Debt, for Montague did not follow 



504 WILLIAM in. AND MARY [1694- 

the earlier fasMoii of borrowing, by which temporary advances 
were demanded for a short period. The new loans became per- 
manent, and their interest a fixed charge on the revenue. One of 
the earliest loans was made by a company of merchants, which in 
return was constituted as the Banli of England, and given special 
advantages in carrying on financial business. This was the first bank 
on a large scale set up in England. It proved very successful, 
partly because it gave better security to those who trusted their 
money to it than the goldsmiths, the earlier bankers, had afforded, 
and partly because it became the ag-ent of the ministry for 
borrowing fresh loans and managing the ever-increasing national 
debt. One indirect advantage came from these loans. The persons 
who lent their money to the government had good reason to be 
afraid of a Jacobite restoration, since it was unlikely that James 
would pay interest on money borrowed by William to maintain 
himself on his throne. Thus the wealthy classes became solidly 
attached to the Revolution settlement. It was a time when commerce 
was greatly extending, and many Englishmen were amassing riches 
through trade. 

16. William had many other difficulties besides those which 
sprang from the need of raising money for the war. He never 
Death of laade himself popular in England or took any trouble 
Queen to understand English ways. His whole mind was 
Mary, 1694. absorbed in his lifelong struggle against France. He 
distrusted Englishmen, and had good reason for doing so. He 
was always glad when he could get away to HoUand, and his chief 
friends were Dutchmen, whom he enriched with English estates 
and raised to English peerages. His health was weak, and he was 
peevish, morose, taciturn, and selfish. These faults blinded most 
Englishmen to his real greatness. Things grew worse after Queen 
Mary's death in 1694, for she was bright, gracious, and popular, 
and a thorough Englishwoman. As they had no children, the next 
heir to the throne was now the princess Anne, Mary's younger 
sister. Anne was on bad terms with her brother-in-law, and had 
as her chief adviser John Chui'chill, earl of Marlborough. 
Marlborough was a great general, but a greedy and self-seeking 
politician. When engaged in William's service, he did not scruple 
to intrigue with the exiled king. 

17. All through these years the Jacobites were active. Plot 
after plot was formed to restore King James and to assassinate 
William. So alarming were these conspiracies that in 1696 par- 
liament followed the example of Elizabeth's parliament in 1584, 



-1696.] WILLIAM III. 505 

and drew up a Bond of Association, by wliicli they agreed to stand 
by King William and tlie Protestant succession, and to avenge 
any attack on either. Faction rose high both in j-. oqjj^ of 
parliament and among the king's ministers. At the Association, 
beginning of the reign William, who was anxious ^696. 
not to be the king of one party only, had chosen his ministers indif- 
ferently from both the Whig and the Tory statesmen. But the 
two factions hated each other, and would not work loyally together. 
Things were the worse since the Tories disliked the war with 
France. They declared that it was dangerous for England to have 
a strong army, and that continental politics were no concern of hers. 

18. It was soon clear that a ministry chosen from the two 

parties would not work. The renegade Sunderland, now again a 

Protestant and returned from exile, wormed his way 

. The first 

into William's favour, and showed him the advantages united Whig 

to be gained from having ministers all of the same ministry, 

way of thinking. The king gradually drove away the 

Tories from office, and selected his advisers exclusively from the 

Whigs. The last Tory to go was the duke of Leeds, the former earl 

of Danby, who narrowly escaped a second impeachment on a charge 

of corruption. By 1696 a united Whig ministry was formed, of 

which the leaders were a little knot of statesmen called the Junto. 

Chief among them were the chancellor. Lord Somers ; Charles 

Montague, the brilliant financier, who was soon made Lord Halifax ; 

and Admiral Russell, the victor of La Hougue, now Lord Orford. 

As soon as William gave his chief confidence to the Whigs, he 

adopted their policy and accepted their measures. In 1694 he gave 

his assent to the Triennial Act, which laid down that no parliament 

should last more than three years. In 1695 he allowed the act to 

lapse which, since the Restoration, had empowered the king to 

appoint a licenser, without whose permission no newspaper or book 

could be printed. Tliis abolition of the censorship of the press was 

as great an encouragement to freedom of writing as the Toleration 

Act had been to freedom of worship. 

19. William had not thought that he was making any great 
change when he created his united Whig ministry. He was eager 
to use all the power that the law, as modified by the „ . . 
revolution, gave him. First among his royal rights of cabinet 
he reckoned his power to choose his ministers freely, ffovern- 
and so to control the government of the country. But * • 
the Whigs, at the time they became his ministers, were the party 
which commanded a majority in the House of Commons, and the 



5o6 WILLIAM in. [1695- 

real advantage which, he got from the change was in the harmony 
between his policy and that which commended itself to his parlia- 
ment. It was, in fact, a move in the direction of the modern 
system of the Cabinet Goveimment, by which the king is compelled 
to have as his advisers the leaders of the party commanding a 
majority in the lower House. Already under Charles 11. there had 
been a tendency towards this plan. The ministry of the Whig 
Junto marked a much further step along the same road. The final 
result was that the king ceased to govern the country at all, and 
that the executive power passed virtually to the House of Commons. 
But this change, which was the greatest of aU the results of the 
revolution, was brought about very slowly, and only completed 
after the accession of the house of Hanover. Yet before the end 
of William's reign another approach to cabinet government was 
made, when William had to dismiss his Whig ministers, because 
the House of Commons ceased to have a Whig majority. 

20. Scotland gave trouble to William , as weU as England. 
Scotland was in those days a very poor country, with little industry 
The Darien ^^ trade, l^ow that England was rapidly gaining 
scheme, wealth by foreign commerce, the Scots naturally 

° ~ wished to do the same. There were, however, grave 

difficulties in the way. The English ISTavigation Acts treated Scot- 
land as a foreign country, and, in particular, shut the Scots out of 
all share in the profitable trade with English colonies. Paterson, 
a shrewd Scot who had helped Montague to establish the Bank 
of England, proposed to his countrymen to set up a Scottish 
colony and trading station on the Isthmus of Darien, or Panama, 
which separates ISTorth and South America. He believed that he 
would be able to bring nearly all the trade between the Pacific 
and Europe through his new colony, and thus make Darien one 
of the great commercial centres of the world. His plan was 
taken up with enthusiasm ; a Darien company was floated, and in 
1698 Paterson himseK landed at Darien with the first settlers. 
Three obstacles stood in their way. The climate was so hot and 
unhealthy that the colonists died off rapidly of fever. Spain claimed 
the site as hers, and regarded the Scottish settlers as pirates. 
England looked with ill wiU on a new colony that would prove, if 
successful, a rival to her own. For aU these reasons the Darien 
scheme proved a failure. Such settlers as survived the climate 
were driven out by the Spaniards, and England did not raise a 
finger to help them. The chief result of the fiasco was that the 
Scots became bitterly hostile to England. 



-1698.] 



WILLIAM Hi. 



507 



The Spanish 
partition 
treaties, 
1698-1699. 



^ 21. The treaty of Hyswickbrouglit no lasting peace. Charles 11 
the childless king of Spain, was slowly dying, and it was cei-tain' 
that on his death Louis xiv. and the emperor Leopold i. 
would each try to establish a member of their own 
family on the Spanish throne. Charles's two sisters, 
Maria Theresa and Margaret Theresa, had married 
Louis and Leopold, and Leopold's mother had been Cliarles's aunt. 
The son of the elder sister, Maria Theresa, and Louis xiv., the 
dauphin Louis of France, was the nearest heir to Charles 11. After 
him came the electress of Bavaria, the only child of Margaret 

THE SPANISH SUCCESSION, 1700. 

Philip III. of Spain, 
1598-1621. 



A.nne, m. Louis xiii. 
of France. 



Philip IV., 
1621-1665. 



Maria, m. the Emperor 
I Ferdinand iii. 



Jouis XIV. m. Maria Charies 11., 
of France. I Theresa. 1665-1700. 



Margaret m. (1) Leopold i. 
Theresa I d. 1705. 



m. (3) Eleanor of 
I Neuburg. 



Louis the 
Dauphin. 



Max Emanuel, 

Elector of 

Bavaria. 



m. IMaria Joseph I., Archduke Charies, 
Antonia. d. 1711. ' Charles in. of Spain.' 

I Emperor Charles vi. 

after 1711, d. 1740. 



^ouis, duke of 
Burgundy. 



Philip, duke of Anjou 
(Philip V. of Spain). 



40uis XV. of France. 



Joseph Ferdinand, 

Electoral prince of Bavaria, 

d. 1699. 



Theresa and Leopold. Maria Theresa, very solemnly, and, to a 
certain extent, the electress had renounced their rights to Spain 
when they had married. If these renunciations were valid, the 
heir was Leopold himself, whose mother had made no such surrender. 
Both the king of France and the emperor meant to press forward 
their pretensions, and statesmen were almost equally afraid of 
either of them succeeding, since the union of Spain with France, 
or even with Austria, would have utterly upset the European 
balance of power. William iii. strongly shared this opinion, and 
was able to persuade Louis xiv. that it was better for him to obtain 
a part of the Spanish succession without a struggle rather than 
plunge into a long and doubtful war on the chance of winning the 



5o8 WILLIAM IIL [1698- 

whole. Accordingly, in 1698, England, Holland, and France signed 
the First Partition Treaty, by wMch it was agreed tliat the electoral 
prince of Bavaria, the son of the electress and grandson of the 
emperor, shonld he the next king of Spain. France was to be 
compensated with the Basque province of Grxiipuscoa and with 
Naples, while the emperor was to be bought o:ffi with the Milanese. 
Looking at the Spanish succession question from the European 
point of view, it was a wise plan to make that prince king whose 
accession would least disturb the European balance, and both 
William and Louis deserve credit for making it. Unluckily, 
the Bavarian prince died in 1699, and so the whole question was 
reopened. Louis and William were still anxious to avoid war, 
and resumed their negotiations. In 1700 they agreed upon a 
Second Partition Treaty. In this Louis recognized the emperor's 
second son, the archduke Charles, as king of Spain, and received 
as additional compensation the Milanese as well as iN^aples and 
Gruipuscoa. This meant that Louis resigned his son's claims in 
order to win for France the supreme position in Italy enjoyed by 
the Spanish Hapsburgers since the days of Charles v. 

22. The weak point of the policy of William and Louis was 

that it took no account whatever of the wishes of the Spaniards. 

Though the treaties were kept secret, news about 
The failuPB . . 

of the them soon leaked out, and Spaniards felt indignant 

partition that foreign princes should presume to cut their 

170^ ^^' empire into pieces and distribute the fragments at 

their pleasure. The dying Charles 11. so fully shared 

this feeling that he made a will, giving the succession to the whole 

of his dominions to Philip, duke of Anjou, the younger son of the 

dauphin, to whom his father, following the example of Leopold's 

handing over his pretensions to the archduke Charles, had yielded 

lip his claims. Soon afterwards he died, and Louis xiv., yielding 

to the temptation, threw over the partition treaty, and sent his 

grandson to Spain. Before long, the whole of the Spanish dominions 

recognized the French prince as Philip v. Thus the great ambition 

of William's life was frustrated, for the union of Spain with France 

seemed likely to make Louis xiv. more dangerous to the European 

balance than ever. 

23. ISTothing, however, could be effected for the moment. A 
The Tory strong Tory rjeaction had followed the treaty of E-ys- 
reaction, wick, and the new parliament, which met in 1698, had 
1698-1700. reduced the English army .to seven thousand men, 
and done all that it could to baffle William and his Whig ministers. 



-I70I.] WILLIAM III 509 

Th.e wish, of the Commons was to drive the Whigs from power, 
but William did not see why he should dismiss ministers he liked 
because the Commons did not happen to agree with their policy. 
For a long time he held out, being helped in his resistance by the 
support of the House of Lords, a body in which the Whigs had in 
those days a permanent majority. However, before the end of 1700 
he was obliged to give way, and accept a Tory ministry, headed by 
the earl of Rochester and Lord Godolphin. It was another step 
forward towards our modern cabinet system when so able a king 
as William had to change his ministers at the bidding of the House 
of Commons. It was gradually becoming clear that the revolution 
had made the Commons stronger than either the king or the Lords. 

24. William felt bitterly that his Tory ministers and parliament 
prevented him from taking any steps to prevent the establishment 
of Philip of Anjou in Spain. The Tories declared that -pj^g ^g^. ^^ 
the balance of power was no concern of England, and Settlement, 
impeached the fallen Whigs for having made the ^'°^' 
partition treaty without the consent of parliament. Nothing, how- 
ever, came of tliis, because the Whig House of Lords took good care 
not to condenm the chiefs of their own party. There was another 
general election in 1701, but the Tories were still in a majority. 
The cliief measure of this new parliament was the Act of Settlement 
of 1701, by which the succession to the throne was provided for in 
the event, which seemed certain, of both William and his sister-in- 
law Anne dying without children. By it the crown was settled, 
after Anne's death, on Sophia, electress of Hanover, and her heirs, 
being Protestants. Sophia was the daughter of Frederick the 
Elector Palatine, and sometime king of Bohemia, and of Elizabeth, 
daughter of James i. She was selected for this position because she 
was the nearest Protestant descendant of James i., her grandfather. 
There were plenty of nearer heirs, but they were all CathoKcs. 

25. In providing for the Protestant succession without regard 

to the strict laws of inheritance, the parliament of 1701 showed 

that Tories, like Whigs, now accepted the doctrines 

of the revolution, and treated the monarchy as an The eonsti- 

. „ \. . tutional 

office which could be conlerred by act ot parliament, limitations 

In fact, the Tory Commons were so jealous of a Whig 'i^ the Act 
king like WiUiam, that they took particular care to ment. 
limit the authority of the crown as soon as the new 
law came into force. Some of the constitutional safeguards intro- 
duced into the Act of Settlement have great future importanoe, 
and worthily completed the legal changes brought about by the 



5IO WILLIAM III [1702. 

revolution settlement. All future kings were to be members of the 
CliurolL of England ; they were not to engage England in war to 
protect their foreign dominions without the consent of parliament, 
and no foreigner was to hold grants, or office, or sit in parliament. 
Judges were to have fixed salaries, and only to be removed from 
office by petition of parliament, and no royal pardon could be 
pleaded as an answer to an impeachment. All these articles showed 
distrust of the crown and a wish to wound William's feelings. 
The same spirit came out even more clearly in three clauses, which 
were repealed in the next reign before they came into operation. 
By these the future king was not to be allowed to leave England 
without consent of parKament. No minister, placeman, or pen- 
sioner was to sit in the House of Commons, and affairs of state 
were to be transacted, not in cabinet coujicils of ministers after the 
Whig fashion, but in the full privy council. Had these two last 
articles ever come into operation, they would have altered the 
whole course of our later history by stopping the growth of cabinet 
government. It was soon found, however, that it was the only 
practical way of giving the strongest party a chance of getting its 
own way. However, when in the next reign the clause excluding 
placemen from parliament was repealed, the present plan was brought 
in of making ministers seek re-election after receiving office. 

26. William was thus checked both at home and abroad. His 
health was breaking up, but he never lost heart, and gradually the 

outlook became brighter. At last a false step on the 
The Grand i^2x\i of Louis xiv. gave him his chance. James 11. 
and the ' <iie<i ill 1701, and Louis, moved by a generous impulse 
death of not to desert the unfortunate, recognized his son 
1702. * Jaiii^s, prince of Wales, as the true English king. 

This was a breach of the treaty of Ryswick, and bad 
policy, because it stirred up English national feeling against 
France. Even the Tories became willing to fight the French ; 
and William was at last enabled to build up a Grand Alliance 
against the union of France and Spain, in which England was to 
take a leading part. Before long William was able to dismiss his 
Tory ministers and dissolve his Tory parliament. A Whig 
majority was returned at the general election, which backed up the 
new Whig ministers in their preparations for war with France. 
All was ready for fighting when William died on March 8, 1702, 
from the effects of a fall from his horse. He lived long enough to 
start the great league which in the next reign was to carry out his 
dearest wish to destroy the power of Louis xiv. 



CHAPTER Vn 
QUEEN ANNE (1702-1714) 

Chief Dates : 

1702. Accession of Queen Anne. 

1704. Battle of Blenheim and Act of Security. 

1706. Battle of Ramillies. 

1707. Battle of Almanza and union with Scotland. 

1708. Battle of Oudenarde. 

1709. Battle of Malplaquet. 

1710. Fall of the Whigs. 

1713. Treaty of Utrecht. 

1714. Death of Anne. 

1. Queen Anne was good-natured, true to her friends, sincerely 
religious, and a thorough Englishwoman. She was popular because 
of her honesty, and her strong sympathy with the charactep 
Tories and the High Churchmen. But she was ob- of Queen 
stinate, and narrow-minded, and her husband, Prince ^^^^' 
George of Denmark, was even duller than his wife. Anne had 
been entirely ruled for many years by her old friend Sarah 
Jennings, who became the wife of Marlborough. Lady Marl- 
borough was strong-willed, quick-witted, and devoted to her 
husband. The result was that Marlborough really governed the 
policy of the new queen. A cold-hearted and selfish man, who had 
betrayed James 11. and William in turn, Marlborough was a clear- 
headed and far-seeing statesman, and the greatest general of his 
age. He was the one man in Europe strong enough to continue 
the life-work of William iii., and it was well for England that he 
was available to guide the counsels and direct the armies of the 
new queen. 

2. Marlborough was a Tory, and his influence caused Anne 
to dismiss her brother-in-law's Wliig ministers and put Tories 
in their place. The chief of the new ministers was Marlborough's 
close friend, Godolphin, a shrewd and prudent financier, who was 
made lord treasurer, and the earl of Nottingham, the leader of 
the High Churchmen, who became secretary of state. Marlborough 

5" 



512 QUEEN ANNE [1702- 

was made a diike and captain- general of the Englisli and Dutch, 
armies. It was his business to carry on the war, while Godolphin 

found the money to pay for it. But he remained a 
"'"^m"'"}^ statesman as well as a general, and the custom of the 

borough armies of the period going into winter quarters en- 

and Godol- abled him to take his share in the work of parUa- 
^y08 " i3i<^iit and government in the winter, while commanding 

the troops in the field during the summer. It was 
a great proof of his power over his party that he persuaded them 
to prosecute the war so vigorously, though all the Tory tradition 
was in favour of peace. 

3. "War began within a few weeks of Anne's accession. The 
chief parties to the G-rand Alliance were England and HoUand, 

„ which still acted closely together, and the emperor, 

the Spanish who hoped to win the Spanish throne for his younger 

succession, gon. Many of the smaller German princes followed 
1702-1713 • • 

the emperor's lead, conspicuous among them being 

the elector of Brandenburg, who had been bribed to take sides 

against France by being recognized as Frederick i., king of 

Prussia. Yet Louis had greater resources than ever under his 

control, France was the richest, most compact, and, in some ways, 

the best ruled state in Europe. Its army had an almost unbroken 

record of victory, and its generals and statesmen enjoyed the 

highest reputation. Spain, hitherto the opponent of France, was 

now Louis's active ally, and was inspired with a new energy 

by her French king. The Spanish Netherlands, hitherto an 

impregnable barrier to French advance, were under Louis's control, 

and the Dutch frontier stood open to invasion. Even in Germany 

the French still had some partisans, notably the elector of Bavaria, 

and his brother, the elector of Cologne. Italy also, which had 

hitherto been against him, was mainly on his side, owing to 

Spanish influence and to his alliance with Victor Amadeus, duke 

of Savoy and lord of Piedmont, the strongest of the Italian princes. 

The struggle between allies so well matched was soon to prove itself 

one of the most memorable in history. 

4. The first campaigns of the war were not very eventful. The 
Dutch were fearful of their land being invaded by the French, and 
The early compelled Marlborough and the chief army of the 
campaigns allies to devote his main attention to the defence of 
1702-m3' *^^^^ frontier. In 1702 and 1703 Marlborough not 

only saved Holland from invasion, but captured Liege 
and Bonn, and overwhelmed the elector of Cologne, Louis's chief 



■1704.] QUEEN ANNE 513 

ally in N orthern Germany. Elsewhere, however, the coalition was 
less successful. In upper Germany the French and their Bavarian 
supporters invaded Austria and marched on Yienna, while a revolt in 
Hungary also exposed the emperor to trouble in the east. Spain 
and Italy were so entirely under French control that Portugal and 
Savoy, alarmed at the danger they were exposed to from French 
ascendency, changed sides and joined the coalition. The treaty 
between England and Portugal was called the -,, 
Methuen Treaty (1703), from its negotiator, John Methuen 
Methuen. By it Portugal opened up her markets Treaty, 
to English manufacturers, while England agreed that 
Portuguese wine should pay a less duty than French wine. The 
result of the compact was\that for the best part of a century Portugal 
became dependent on England both in politics and trade. 

5. In 1704 matters became critical for the allies. Yienna was 
threatened both from Bavaria and from Hungary, and it seemed as 
if the emperor would be forced to make peace. The ga+tie of 
only army that could help him was that of Marl- Blenheim, 
borough, which lay hundreds of miles away protecting 1704. 
the Dutch frontier, and whose presence there the Dutch thought 
necessary for their safety. Armies of this period were unwieldy 
and slow, but it is the mark of a general of genius to break from 
the traditions of his day, and Marlborough rose to the great 
opportunity which was offered to him. He resolved to shift his 
army from the lower Rhine to the upper Danube and save, the 
emperor. He overcame the reluctance of the Dutch with extra- 
ordinary tact, and persuaded them to allow him to remove his troops 
on the pretence of fighting on the Moselle. But he hurried his 
force up the Rhine and Neckar, and invaded Bavaria from the west. 
Prince Eugene of Savoy, the best of the imperial generals, now 
united his army with that of Marlborough. Thereupon the French 
and Bavarians were compelled to fight a battle to save Bavaria from 
being overrun. It took place on August 13, 1704, at Blindheim, 
called by the English Blenheim, a viUage on the north bank of the 
Danube, not far east from Hochstadt. The Franco-Bavarian army 
took up a position facing eastwards on some rising ground com- 
manding the marshy valley through which the little river Nebel 
runs to join the Danube. Blenheim, the right of their position, 
was held by Marshal Tallard, the chief French general ; in the left 
were the Bavarians under their elector ; while the centre consisted 
of French troops under Marshal Marsin. The allies were on the 
opnosite bank, Prince Eugene being opposed to the elector and- 

2 h 



514 



QUEEN ANNE 



[1704- 



Marsin, while Marlborough fought against Tallard. The battle 
began by Marlborough fiercely attacking Blenheim ; but the 
village was strongly fortified, and many lives were lost to no 
purpose. Marlborough's quick eye soon saw that Tallard had 
drawn off many troops from Marsin's column in order to protect 
his threatened right. He at once threw all his forces against the 
weak point in the enemies' lines, and managed to break through his 
centre. Thereupon the elector retreated with the left wing, while 
Tallard and the defenders of Blenheim w6re forced to lay down 
their arms. The battle of Blenheim was the first great victory won 




Emery Walker scs 



against Louis xiv. in the open field, and dealt a heavy blow to the 
prestige of the French army. Austria was saved ; Bavaria forced 
to make peace ; the French were driven over the Danube ; and 
Marlborough won the reputation of a brilliant general whose 
daring tactics, rapid movements, and brilliant attacks raised him 
far above the stiff and slow commanders of the age. 

6. In 1706 the successes of Blenheim were followed up by a 
remarkable series of victories. Marlborough, who had returned to 
the Netherlands, won the hattle of Bamillies, near l^amur, the 
result of which was the capture of almost all the Spanish 



-1709.] QUEEN ANNE 515 

Netherlands. Prince Eug-ene, wlio had undertaken the command 
in Italy, won the decisive battle of Turin, which drove the French 
out of Italy and established the archduke Charles in yictopies of 
Milan and Naples, The attack on Philip v. in Spain, the allies in 
which had begun by Admiral Rooke's capture of 1704-1706. 
Gibraltar in 1704, and extended after Barcelona had been won 
in 1705, was consummated by the union of two allied armies in 
Madrid. One of these, starting- from Barcelona, consisted largely 
of the Catalans, who had revolted from PhiKp and proclaimed 
the archduke Charles their king ; while the other, composed of 
Portuguese, English, and Dutch, marched up the Tagus valley to 
the Spanish capital. It seemed as if France were beaten in every 
field of the war. 

7. Louis and his grandson were inspired to new efforts by their 
earlier failures, and in 1707 the tide of "sdctory turned against the 
allies. Tliis was particularly the case in Spain, where ^j^^ battle 
the proclamation of the hated Austrian had been Almanza, 
followed by a great popular rising of the Spanish 1707. 
people in favour of the king of their choice. In 1707 the allies 
were decisively beaten in the battle of Almanza, and Philip v. was 
restored to Madrid. In the Netherlands many of the fortresses 
lost after Blenheim were won back, wliile the invasion of Germany 
was renewed. It was clear that the French were not yet powerless. 

8. In 1708 the allies regained their lost ground in the Nether- 
lands. Marlborough and Eugene won the battle of Oudenarde, 
which repeated the success of BamiUies, and was g^^^jg ^f 
followed by the recapture of the Netherlandish Oudenarde, 
fortresses. At last the storming of LiUe, the key of 1^08. 
French Flanders, opened up Louis's own dominions to invasion. 
Louis became so despondent that he offered to make peace and 
renounce the Spanish succession. But the allies declared that they 
would only agree to make terms if Louis would help them to expel 
Philip from Spain. The French king declined to do this, and 
manfully prepared to resist invasion. 

9. In 1709 Marlborough won the last of his great victories at 
Malplaquet. The French resistance was very stubborn, and the 
allies lost more heavily than the defeated enemy. Very j^^ battle 
few important results attended tliis triumph, and ofMalpla- 
for the rest of the war the campaign in the Nether- ^^®t« ^'^O^- 
lands languished. The English now made their chief efforts in 
Spain, where, in 1708, General ' Stanhope captui-ed the important 
island of Minorca, and in 1710 again occupied Madrid. Again the 



5l6 QUEEN ANNE [1709- 

loyalty of the Spaniards to Philip v. made the allies triumph a short 
one. Before the end of the year Stanhope was defeated, and forced 
to surrender with most of his troops at Brihuega. 
?7i^^^^^' Henceforth Philip of Anjou reigned over Spain. 
Only the Catalans continued to uphold the archduke 
Charles. And in 1711 the allies themselves became lukewarm in 
Charles's service, for in that year Charles became emperor on his 
brother's death. Henceforth his accession to Spain seemed nearly as 
likely to upset the balance of power as the rule of Philip v. The 
war was waged with decreasing energy, and neither side scored 
any remarkable successes. The concLuest of the Netherlands by the 
allies and the exhaustion of France were balanced by the establish- 
ment of Philip both in Italy and Spain. At last a change in the 
political conditions of England made our country anxious to put an 
end to the war. 

10. For the first few years of Anne's reign, G-odolphin and 
Marlborough ruled England as the heads of a Tory ministry. 
p . Their great anxiety was to carry on the war, and for 

tests, 1702- that reason they strove to keep on friendly terms with 
1708. -tlie Whig leaders, who were the natural supporters of 

a spirited foreign policy. To conciliate the Whigs they had to 
check the zeal of the High Tory party for upholding the Church at 
the expense of the Dissenters. The Highfliers, as they were called, 
were anxious to make law a Bill against Occasional Conformity, 
which was to prevent Dissenters CLualifying for office by receiving 
once in the way communion in Church. Marlborough and 
Godolphin hesitated to pass a measure that would have utterly 
alienated the Whigs and Dissenters. Before long they opposed it, 
whereupon l^otting-ham resigned office in disgust, and raised the 
cry that the ministry was hostile to the Church. Besides this, 
Marlborough was gradually finding out, Kke WiUiam, that only 
the Whigs were reaUy to be depended upon for supporting his war 
policy. Accordingly, he filled up vacancies with Whigs, and in 
1706 gave the office of secretary of state to his son-in-law. Lord 
Sunderland, the son of the old adviser of James it. and WiUiam in, 
Sunderland was a strong Whig and closely allied to the chiefs of 
the Whig Junto, who were stiU excluded from office, Gradually 
the Tory element in the ministry was pushed into the background. 
In desperation the Tories intrigued against their coUeagnies, and 
strove to win court favour by undermining the influence of the 
duchess of Marlborough with the queen, Robert Harley, the Tory 
secretary of state, obtained a place at court for his cousm. 



-lyio.] QUEEN ANNE 517 

Mrs, Masliam, wliose placable and easy temper soon won Anne's 
confidence, especially as slie was getting tired of the overbearing 
ducbess. Mrs. Masliam taught the queen that the Whigs were 
plotting against the Church. 

11. It was clear that either the Whigs or the Tories must go. 
Marlborough and Godolphin definitely went over to the Whigs, 
forced the reluctant queen to turn out Harley and his 

Tory colleagues, and replaced them with Somers, bwough's 
Orford, and the lords of the Junto. Among the Whig 
younger Whigs now taken into office was the capable fl^os^i 7^0 
Norfolk squire, Robert Walpole, who succeeded Henry 
St. John, the most briUiant of the Tories, as secretary at war. 
From 1708 to 1710 Marlborough and Godolphin retained power 
through, the help of their old opponents. Foreign policy now reaUy 
divided Whig and Tory. It became the party interest of the Whigs 
to prolong the French war, and for this reason they rejected, as we 
have seen, the offers of peace which Louis xiv. made in the days of 
his worst distress. After the campaigns had ceased to be successful 
and the accession of Charles vi. to the Empire, they were still 
anxious to continue the struggle. Henceforth war or peace 
depended less on the armies in the field than on parliamentary 
struggles and court intrigues. It was soon made clear that the 
Whigs were playing a factious game in the hope of maintaining 
their power, and plain men became disgusted that a bloody and 
unprofitable war should be continued indefinitely to meet the interest 
of a place-loving ministry. 

12. Once more the cry was raised that the Church was in 
danger. Anne, now altogether under Mrs. Masham's influence, 
became extremely suspicious of her ministers' doings, , 

and a Tory parson, named Dr. Sacheverell, won extra- peaehment 
ordinary influence by his political sermons against the of Dr. 
Whigs. The Whigs unwisely made a martyr of ^^j^ j^Qg 
Sacheverell by impeaching him, though his offence 
was so technical that even the Whig House of Lords could inflict 
upon him no worse punishment than three years' suspension from 
preaching. This was enough, however, to make the doctor a 
popular hero, and an effective electioneering agent for the Tories. 
Anne began to consult Harley and remove the Whigs from office. 
The general election of 1710 returned a strong majority of Tories 
and High Churchmen to the House of Commons. The result of 
this was that the Tories remained in power for the rest of the 
queen's life. 



5l8 QUEEN ANNE ti7lo- 

13. Roljert Harley, who 'became in 1711 earl of Oxford and lord 
high treasurer, was now the chief minister. He was a skilful party 
TheTopy manager and a dexterous intriguer, but was timid, 
ministry, hesitating, a poor speaker, and of somewhat ordinary 
1710-1713. temperament. Far more brilliant and attractive was 
Henry St. John, the secretary of state, who soon became Yiscount 
Bolingbroke. He was a man of fashion and a famous writer, of 
wonderful eloquence, and clear insight into English character. 
But he looked upon politics as a mere game, and had little real 
earnestness or conviction. Under the influence of these two, Marl- 
borough was dismissed from the command of the army, and charges 
of corruption and peculation brought ag*ainst him. His successor 
as general-in-chief was the duke of Ormonde, an incompetent 
nobleman, who withdrew from all active share in the war. The 
Whig majority in the House of Lords was broken down by creating 
twelve Tory peers, one of whom was Mrs. Masham's husband. The 
Tories now showed as much factious zeal in hurrying forward the 
conclusion of peace as the Whigs had manifested in refusing to 
end the war. They threw over the emperor altogether, and in 
1713 united with the Dutch to make a separate treaty with the 
French and Spaniards at Utrecht. It was only in the following 
year that Charles vi. was reluctantly forced to end the war by the 
treaty of Rastadt. 

14. The chief condition of the treaty of Utrecht was that 
Philip V. should be recognized as king of Spain and the Tndies, 
The Treaty ^"^^^ ^^^ Catalans, who had fought so well for Charles, 
of Utreeht, being forced to accept his rule. The emperor was 
^^^^* compensated in Italy, where Milan, Naples, and Sar- 
dinia were ceded to liim. Charles vi. had also hoped to get the 
Netherlands and Sicily, but the Netherlands were handed over 
to the Dutch, who were only to resign them to the emperor when 
he had concluded with them a harrier treaty ^ by which the fortresses 
on the French frontier were to be permanently garrisoned by Dutch 
troops. Sicily escaped Charles altogether, being given to Victor 
Amadeus, duke of Savoy, with the title of king. England received 
some reward in the recognition of the Protestant succession, the 
cession of Newfoundland and Acadie (Nova Scotia) by France, and 
the surrender of Gibraltar and Minorca by Spain. Important 
commercial advantages were also secured to England and HoUand. 
The commerce of the Netherlands was ruined to please the Dutch, 
and Spain made with England a contract called the Asiento, which 
gave the Eng'lish the lucrative monopoly of supplying her American 



•I7I3-] 



QUEEN ANNE 



519 




520 QUEEN ANNE [1713- 

colonies with, negro slaves. Spain also permitted England to send 
one sMp a year to trade with Portobello, in South America. 

15. The treaty of Utrecht marked an epoch both in th.e history 
of Europe and of England. It completed the downfall of the over- 
End of great power of Louis xiv. , wko died in 1715, after having 
the age of outlived th.e glories of his age. It brought about tbe 
Louis XIV. revival of Spain and the beginning of the European 
importance of the two new monarchies of Brandenburg-Prussia and 
Sicily- Savoy. It witnessed the establishment of England in the 
prominent position won for her by Marlborough's victories, and gave 
ber great commercial advantages, fresh colonies, an establishment 
in the Mediterranean, and the status of the supreme maritime 
power in the world. It was, however, concluded in such, a hurry 
that the Whigs complained with reason that the government bad 
neglected to secure many advantages which Louis migbt bave 
yielded, if the English bad shown more caution in the conduct of 
the negotiations. The treaty was denounced as a party move, and 
the Tories were held up to shame as having neglected the interests 
of their country in their desire to play the game of their faction. 
It is impossible to justify the way in which England threw over 
her allies or hurried on the treaty. But it was a good thing to 
make peace, and it would not have been to the permanent interest 
of England to have humiliated the French any further. 

16. Oxford and Bolingbroke looked forward to a long lease of 
power. The peace was popular and the country prosperous. The 

High Church party was won over by passing the Act 

ministry against Occasional Conformity in 1711, to which was 

and the added, in 1714, the Schism Act, which prevented any 

Ppotestant Dissenter from becoming" a schoolmaster. A new 
sueeession. ^ i i- , 

general election returned another Tory House of 

Commons, and the good-will of the queen was absolutely secured 

for them. But Anne's health was now breaking up, and, as the 

electress Sophia, who was over eighty years of age, died at this 

time, it looked as if the throne would soon pass, according to the 

Act of Settlement, to her son, George, elector of Hanover. George 

was an enemy of the treaty of Utrecht and a friend of the Whigs, 

and Bolingbroke feared lest his accession should involve the expulsion 

of the Tories from office. Above all things, Bolingbroke was a 

strong party man, and he began to think that his party could only 

be kept in place by overthrowing the Act of Settlement. He had 

no faith in divine right or arbitrary power, but he preferred a 

Stewart to a foreign king, and put the interests of his party first 



-I7I4-] QUEEN ANNE 521 

of all. There were still many Tories and High. Churclimen who 
upheld the divine right of the old line of kings, and Anne herself 
was not unwilling to secure the succession for her half-brother. 
The main obstacle in the way was the fact that James was a Roman 
Catholic, and that he would not deny or dissemble his faith. 

17. Boling'broke threw himself with eagerness into his treason- 
able poKcy. He won over some of his colleagues, but his chief 
difficulty was with Oxford, who was too cautious and 

timid to embark upon great risks, and was jealous Oxford and 
of the personal ascendency of the brilliant secretary, the death 
The result was a j&erce quarrel between Bolingbroke Anne^l714 
and Oxford, which culminated in an unseemly alterca- 
tion before the sick queen. Anne took Bolingbroke's side, and 
on July 27, 1714, deprived his rival of office. Bolingbroke then 
had everything his own way, and prepared for a revolution. His 
plans were still but half ready when, on July 30, the queen was 
smitten with apoplexy. All was now confusion, and the cabinet 
met to decide what was to be done. While they were deliberat- 
ing, the Whig dukes of Argyll and Somerset demanded, as privy 
councillors, to be admitted to share their deliberations. The 
law knew nothing of cabinets, and they claimed that one privy 
councillor had as much right to be consulted as another. One of 
the ministers, the duke of Shrewsbury, backed up their claims, and 
they insisted that he should be made Oxford's successor as treasurer. 
The three dukes now took everything upon themselves, and 
ignoring the ministers, summoned to the council all the privy 
councillors, the majority of whom were Whigs. When Anne died 
on August 1, they proclaimed the accession of the elector of 
Hanover as George i. Bolingbroke shrunk from open resistance, 
and set down his misfortune to the sudden death of the queen. 
" In six weeks more," he said, " we should have put things in such 
a condition that there would have been nothing to fear. But 
Oxford was removed on Tuesday ; the queen died on Sunday! 
What a world is this, and how does fortune banter us ! " 

18. Under Queen Anne the parliamentary union of England 
and Scotland was happily accomplished. Since the 

coUapse of the Darien project, there had been much ill- pgiatJons 
feeling between the two countries. It had been hoped of England 
that the revolution had set the northern kingdom free f^^f^^^g^gg. 
to work out its own destinies. But the Darien failure \ 702'. 
had shown that Scotland, as the weaker power, was still 
obliged in important matters to follow the lead of England, and 



522 QUEEN ANNE [1702- 

tliat as long as Scotland remained under a separate government, 
Scotsmen were shut out from all the sources of wealth which 
were making England the greatest commercial country in the world. 
It was clear that things could not go on as they were, and that 
there must either he complete separation or fuller union. "Wise 
men like WiUiam iii. saw in the latter course the best way out of 
the deadlock. But a patriotic party grew up in Scotland, led' by 
Andrew Fletcher, of Salton, who wished for absolute separation 
between the crowns, and the restoration of Scotland to the position 
of independence it had enjoyed before 1603. Largely through 
Fletcher's influence, the Scots rejected William's overtures for a 
union, and the need of providing for the succession after Anne's 
death gave him the chance of vindicating the freedom of his country. 

19. It had been expected that just as in 1689 Scotland had 
followed the lead of England, and had dethroned James in favour 
The Act of ^^ William, so after 1701 she would pass a new Act of 
Security, Succession on the lines of the English Act of Settle- 
1703-1704. j32ent. Fletcher was resolved that Scotland should 
take up her own line, and in 1703 brought forward a Bill of 
Security, by which on Anne's death the Scottish throne was to go 
to some Protestant descendant of the royal house, but excluding 
the successor to the English throne, unless he accepted a series of 
Limitations, by which all the power of the crown in Scotland was 
permanently handed over to a committee of the Scottish ParKa- 
ment. It was the moment of the crisis of the Spanish succession 
war, and Godolphin dared not risk a conflict between England and 
Scotland. After once refusing the royal assent to the Bill of 
Security, Anne accepted it in 1704. 

20. The Act of Security was in substance a declaration of 
war. The English not unnaturally retaliated by cutting off all 
TheFlvine ^^^^ with Scotland, denying the Scots aU rights in 
Squadron England, and by massing troops on the Borders. But 
and the gradually the Scots became more prudent. If they 
tionsfor quarrelled with England, they lost aU chance of a 
the union, share in English trade, and there was a real dang'er 

1 704i— i 707 

lest they became the tools of the Jacobites and en- 
dangered Presbyterianism and Protestantism. A middle party 
arose, called the Flying Squadron, which, while professing to hold 
the balance between Fletcher and the English party, showed a 
willingness to accept reasonable proposals for union. Grodolphin 
then took up a moderate Kne, and in 1706 commissioners from the 
two nations were empowered to draw up the conditions of a treaty. 



-1707.] QUEEN ANNE 523 

In 1707 an Act of Union was laid before the two Parliaments. 

Accepted easily by tlie Englisli parliament, it also passed through. 

the Scots estates by a small majority, though Scottish national 

feeling was bitterly opposed to it. 

21. By the Act of Union it was agreed that there should be 

one parliament, one privy council, one government, and the same 

law of succession to the united monarchy. The United 

Kingdom was to be called Great Britain, with a Theparlia- 

^ , mentary 

national fiag — the " Union Jack," made of the crosses union of 

of St. Andrew and St. G-eorge combined. Scotland England 

was to be represented in the united parliament by j^^d 1707. 

forty-five commoners, chosen by the shires and burghs, 

and by sixteen peers, elected by the whole body of Scottish 

nobles. The Presbyterian Church system was declared the 

only government of the Church within Scotland, and every 

monarch was required on his accession to take an oath to protect 

it. The Scottish law courts and law were continued, though there 

was now an appeal from the Court of Session at Edinburgh to the 

House of Lords. Complete commercial equality between the two 

countries was estabKshed, so that Scots might trade with the 

English colonies. This last clause was very important, because it 

soon gave the Scots such material advantages from the union that 

they were content to put up with the rest of it. Moreover, the 

wise care taken to safeguard the Scottish Church and the Scottish 

law blunted the sharpest edge of hostility. Yet the union remained 

intensely unpopular in Scotland, and even in England was looked 

upon with but little favour. The best sign of the hostility of the 

Scots to the new system was soon to be found in the fact that 

within forty years of the Act, the fervid Protestants of the north 

twice stood aside and allowed the Highlanders to proclaim popish 

pretenders. 



CHAPTER VIII 
GREAT BRITAIN UNDER THE STEWARTS 

1. In the course of the Stewart period Eng-land became the greatest 

colonizing and commercial nation in the world. We have seen 

how she established colonies in North America and 

and com- ^^^ West Indies, and trading stations in Africa and 

mepelal India, which spread English commerce and influence 

develop- . (jjg-tant lands. While the Stewarts were still 

ment. 

on the throne. England made up for the lateness 

with which she had entered in these fields by the superior energy 
and vigour with which she outdistanced Portugal and beat 
Holland after a severe struggle. The last Stewart reigns saw the 
carrying trade of the Dutch transferred to England. Our colonies 
became more important than those of any European state save 
Spain, and infinitely superior to those of the Spaniards in all that 
makes new lands great. The same age witnessed the first triumphs 
of England over France, and the beginnings of the long process 
that was to bring the trade and colonies so laboriously established 
by Louis xiv. under the control of the English state. After the 
Revolution and the treaty of Utrecht, England had established her- 
self firmly as the chief trading power of Europe. 

2. The effects of this expansion on England were numerous 
and important. The growth of trade resulted in increased weight 
Re Its of I'eiiig' given to commercial questions, enhanced the 
the growth wealth and influence of the trading classes, and pro- 
of trade on foundly affected our foreign poKcy. It enabled a 
larger national income to be levied without incon- 
venience to the taxpayer, and thus made it possible to equip the 
navy which contested with the Dutch and French for the supre- 
macy of the seas, and the great armies which, under William ill. 
and Marlborough, broke down the supremacy of Louis xiv. Bank- 
ing and finance became important, as was shown by the establish- 
ment of the Bank of England. Men began to give serious thought 
to the problems arising from commerce, and to those questions 
524 



1 7 14- J GREAT BRITAIN UNDER THE STEWARTS 525 

concerning the production and distribution of wealth which are 
called econoTYiic. The theory of trade which now held the field 
was called the Mercantile System. This taught that the advantage 
of foreign trade depends upon the amount of gold and silver which 
it brought into a country. If a trade thus brought in bullion, the 
Balance of Trade was said to be in our favour ; if not, then the 
balance was against us. It was, therefore, a matter of supreme 
concern to make exports exceed imports, and the growth of ex- 
ports involved the increase of manufactures and commerce. 

3. Manufactures became more numerous and important, though 
England still remained a commercial and agricultural rather than 
a manufacturing country, and depended upon France, 

Holland, and the East for the finer wares which our own Jy^g" ^^ 
craftsmen were still unable to produce. A great impetus 
was given to our industries when the persecutions of the French 
Protestants by Louis xiv. drove to Britain as to other Protestant 
lands a large number of skilled Huguenot mechanics and craftsmen. 
Agriculture was so prosperous that farmers and landlords alike 
throve, and the demand for more land led to great schemes for 
draining swamps and fens, of which the most important was that 
carried out by Dutch engineers in the fen district of northern 
Cambridgeshire, where vast tracts of country were turned from 
their old condition of an unhealthy desert into the best corn- 
growing land in England. 

4. The peasantry shared in the increased prosperity, and 
pauperism, so terrible a trouble under the Tudors, became less 
burdensome under the Stewarts. Yet it still remained jhe poor 

a real evil, and the unequal distribution of the poor and the 
made their relief very burdensome to those districts ^^°^ ^^' 
where the poor chiefly congregated. Hoping to remedy this, the 
Restoration Parliament passed the Act of Settlement of 1662. By 
it, each parish was allowed to remove a new-comer, likely to become 
chargeable to the rates, to the place where he had previously had a 
legal settlement. The act gave a great blow to vagrancy, but by 
tying down the workman to the spot of his birth, prevented him 
from transferring himself freely to the district where his services 
were most wanted. 

5. Population grew, but not rapidly. Towards the end of the 
century there were perhaps five million inhabitants of England 
and Wales. The north was still poor and scantily peopled, and 
the increase was still mainly in the east and south. London, which 
had perhaps half a million inhabitants, was the only really large 



526 GREAT BRITAIN UNDER THE STEWARTS [1603- 

town, the next to it being Bristol and Norwich, with about thirty 
thousand inhabitants in each. It followed from this inequality that 

London had immense influence on politics, fashion, 
the towns ^^^ opinion. Nearly all the ablest men lived in or 

near it; nearly all the printing of the nation was 
done there. It had grown so enormously since Elizabeth's days 
that men grew alarmed, and feared that it would soon prove im- 
possible to feed, govern, and keep healthy so great a mass of human 
beings. Yet the measures taken to prevent the growth of London 
proved entirely ineffectual, and great suburbs arose on every side 
of the city of London, which did not extend its ancient narrow 
limits. A fashionable quarter grew up round the couri to the west, 
while manufacturing and commercial regions extended eastwards 
of the city down the course of the Thames. The new districts 
were less overcrowded than the city, and free from the antiquated 
rules of the city companies, which restrained rather than encouraged 
the trades they were meant to protect. The sanitary condition 
of city and suburbs alike was deplorable. Until the reign of 
James i. aU drinking water came from the Thames or from shallow 
wells, until the New River Company brought a wholesome supply 
of running water from the streams of Hertfordshire. Plague was 
seldom long absent, and the wooden, closely packed houses were in 
constant danger of fire. After the Great Fire in the city, brick 
replaced wood as a building material, but no attempt was made 
to rebuild the town on an intelligent plan, or with streets and 
public places of adequate size. The streets were badly paved, dirty^ 
and ill-lighted ; the police was very ineffective ; robbery and 
violence were common, and after dark bands of gentlemen amused 
themselves by assaulting and insulting the passers-by. 

6. With all its drawbacks, life in London had plenty of attrac- 
tions. Until 1642 the playhouses were in full swing, but they were 

then closed by order of parliament, and were not re- 
ment^ opened until the Restoration. After that event plays 

were represented with much more attention to scenery 
and spectacular effects than in the days of EKzabeth and James i. 
"Women for the first time acted in the female parts, and ballet- 
dancing, brought in from France, became popular. Gentlemen 
exercised themselves at the riding-school or with fencing, tennis, 
and a game at ball caUed pall-mall. They amused themselves with 
the fashionable sports of cock-fighting, horse-racing, and gambling. 
It was a sign of the progress of refinement that the old national 
amusements of bull- and bear-baiting were no longer approved of 



-I7T4.] GREAT BRITAIN UNDER THE STEWARTS 527 

in polite circles, thougli still extremely popular with, the people. 
The bear-gardens were also used for boxing and prize-fights with 
swords. Two features of the Restoration period were the open- 
ing of pubKc gardens, of which VauxhaU was the most famous, 
and the growth of Coffee-houses, which served the purpose of 
modern clubs, and were centres of gossip and society. Coffee and 
tea were first drunk in Charles 11. 's time, and these beverages did 
something to change social habits and make life more refined, 
though drunkenness was still very common in all classes of society. 
Charles 11. was famous for bringing in a more elegant way oi 
living, but foreigners still complained of the grossness of English 
repasts. There was still only two meals a day. Dinner was at one 
o'clock, and few took anything earlier but a " morning-draught " 
of beer, with some bread-and-butter. 

7. Despite the badness of the roads men flocked to London, and 
fashionable people spent their holidays at inland watering-places, 
such as Bath, Tunbridge Wells, Harrogate, or Buxton. 

Coaches, which were a rare luxury under Elizabeth, potions^^' 
became common, though active people, who wished to 
travel quickly, still preferred to go on horseback. Carriers' 
waggons began to replace pack-horses as means of transporting 
goods, especially in the south. Stage-coaches began under the 
Commonwealth, and under Charles 11. flying- coaches, as they 
were called, managed to travel about fifty miles a day. Hackney- 
coaches, plying for hire in the streets, first began under the 
Commonwealth, and the same period saw the establishment of a 
government postal system, which the Restoration adopted and 
improved. 

8. Dress underwent a complete revolution during the century. 

The dignified costume of the gentlemen depicted in Yan Dyck's 

portraits of the contemporaries of James i. and _ 

Dr6ss. 
Charles i. became more fantastic and extravagant 

towards the middle of the century, and afforded reasonable grounds 
for Puritan attack. Some simplification resulted for a time from 
Puritan influence, though it is an exaggeration to suppose that 
the politics of a gentleman during the Civil War could at once be 
discerned by the cut and colour of his clothes. Under Charles 11., 
the doublet and long cloak ceased to be worn, and in their place 
men dressed in the garments which ultimately became the modern 
coat and waistcoat, and in loose knee-breeches. Low shoes super- 
seded boots, and a lace cravat took the place of bands. Early in 
the reign men shaved their heads, and used wigs instead of their 



^28 GREAT BRITAIN UNDER THE STEWARTS [1603- 

own hair. Up to tMs time monstaches and a pointed beard liad 
been generally worn, even by bishops like Land, bnt with, the intro- 
duction of the periwig the face began to be clean-shaven. Ladies 
dress underwent similar changes. The beauties of Charles ii.'s 
court wore trains and low dresses, and, like men, many of them 
adopted wigs, while others wore " puffs " of false curls, extended on 
wires, that made their heads look very wide. Patches also came 
into common use. 

9. In fashionable circles education became more and more the 
learning of good and graceful manners, and for this, as for more 

solid things, every one, after the Restoration, looked 
'a ij n. ^^ Prance for guidance. G-entlemen of fashion were 
content with a superficial smattering of elegant French culture, 
and the average lady of quality could neither spell nor express 
herself correctly. Yet there were many scholarly and learned men 
in the chief professions, and even among the higher classes. In the 
great world the elements of knowledge became more widespread, 
and the growing taste for reading encouraged the multiplication 
of books, pamphlets, and newspapers. Since the days of Whitgift 
and Laud the universities had been purged of all Puritan leanings, 
until, under the Commonwealth, they were reformed on Puritan 
lines. The expulsion of many men of learning because of their 
views led to evil results, despite the high character of the Puritan 
scholars who replaced them. Things were made worse when the 
Restoration brought about more ejections on political and religious 
grounds. Both Oxford and Cambridge were strong supporters of 
Church and king, but the violence of their politics did not prevent 
the prosecution of serious study. In particular they became the 
centres of the strict investigation of nature, which was a marked 
feature of the time. 

10. The revolt of the Reformation against the Middle Ages 
had led to an utter contempt for its theories of natural science. 

The Novum Organum of Francis Bacon, though of 
^enee little influence on scientific workers, expressed with. 

brilliant eloquence the high expectations which gifted 
minds had formed of the fruitful results to be expected from the 
scientific methods of observation and experiment. The great 
British men of science of this age were the Scottish laird, 
Napier of Merchiston, the • inventor of logarithms, and William 
Harvey, Charles i.'s physician, who demonstrated the circulation 
of the hlood. About the middle of the century the diffused 
interest in experimental science led to the periodic meeting 



-1 714-] GREAT BRITAIN UNDER THE STEWARTS 529 

together of a little band of able men devoted to its pursuit. This 
society was incorporated in 1662 under the name of the Royal 
Societij by Charles 11., who was himself much interested in these 
studies. Among the early members of this body was Isaac 
Newton, a professor of mathematics at Cambridge, whose famous 
mathematical and physical discoveries raised him to a unique 
position among English men of science. By the labours of these 
men the foundations of modern EngHsh science were securely 
laid. 

11. The steady prog'ress of science stands in strong contrast to 
the necessary fluctuations of art. Under James i. nobles built their 
great country houses on lines which are not readily 
distinguishable from those of the age of Elizabeth, but ^^^^ ^ ^^' 
two new impulses came in early in the century, when 
the Laudian school revived the use of Gothic architecture, notably 
at Oxford, and when the work of the Welsh architect, Inigo Jones, 
brought into England a taste for the classical buildings which the 
example of the Italian designer, PaUadio, had already made fashion- 
able in Italy. After the Restoration, Sir Christopher Wren 
carried out stiU further the work begun by Inigo Jones. The 
Great Fire of London gave him a unique opportunity. His new 
St. Paul's and a crowd of noble city churches have immortalized 
his name. His eye for proportion made the interior of many of 
his churches beautiful works of art, conspicuous among them being 
St. Stephen's, Walbrook. A special feature of his work were the 
graceful spires and towers which, grouped round the great dome of 
St. Paul's, still give th# characteristic feature to all views of the 
modern city of London. His pupils carried on his traditions far 
into the eighteenth century, and Queen Anne's Act for building 
fifty new churches round London gave them opportunities of 
showing their skill. Domestic architectui-e found its best models 
in the brick-built houses of Holland, and culminated in the 
picturesque and convenient " Queen Anne " style, wliich has been 
largely revived in the latter part of the nineteenth centuiy. 

12. There was more taste for painting and sculptui-e in England 
under the Stewarts than under the Tudors. Charles i. was a dis- 
cerning patron of art,, and, despite his scanty means, Painting', 
made a fine collection of pictui-es. Though no sculpture. 
Englishman made a great name for himself as a ^" "^"^ ^' 
painter or sculptor, many distinguished foreign artists took up 
their residejice in England, and produced there many of their best 
works. Conspicuous among these were the magnificent Flemirli 
II 2 m 



530 GREAT BRITAIN UNDER THE STEWARTS [1603- 

coloiirist, Peter Paul Rubens, and his best pupil, Antony Van 
Dyck, botji of whom were dubbed knights by Charles i. Puritan 
intolerance worked havoc with all forms of art. Charles i.'s 
pictures were sold and dispersed, thoug-h the sound taste of Crom- 
well saved some of the most precious of them for the country. 
Peter Lely, a shrewd Dutchman, came to England during the 
Commonwealth, and for forty years did an excellent business in 
painting all manner of men and women, from the Lord Protector 
to the ladies of Charles 11. 's court. His successor was another 
f oreig'ner, Godfrey Kneller. Yery important was the work of the 
incomparable Dutch wood-carver, Grinling Gibbons, whose tasteful 
and delicate work adorned the interior of many of Wren's churches. 
Music received a peculiarly heavy blow from Puritan ascendency, 
especially by reason of the hostility of Puritans to the dignified 
worship of the cathedrals, whose choirs had always been the best 
schools of English vocal art. Yet two of the foremost Puritans, 
Cromwell and Milton, were sincere lovers of music, and the cathedral 
choir, revived after the Restoration, produced in Henry Purcell 
a great English composer, whose untimely death cut off the 
prospect of the g-rowth of a really English school of musicians. 
Under the Commonwealth and Charles 11., Italian o'peTa was first 
introduced into England, and Purcell himself wrote notable operas. 
This form of art, though ridiculed by Addison as foreign and 
womanish, became popular, and did something by its combination 
of poetry and music to compensate for the decay of the masque 
of the early seventeenth century. 

13. The revolution in taste and feeling which the Stewart 
period showed is strikingly illustrated in its literature. Under 
_,. , James i. we were still in the Elizabethan age. The 

first years of the reign of the first Stewart witnessed 
the production of the most sublime of Shakespeare's dramas. But 
about 1611 Shakespeare retired with a fortune to Stratford, where 
he died in 1616. Seven years after his death, in 1623, the First 
Folio, the earliest collected edition of his works, was published by 
his friends and fellow-actors. His place as a dramatist was in some 
measure taken by his friend, Ben Jonson (1573-1637), a rough, 
strong, and learned playwright and an admirable critic, who, as he 
grew old, became the oracle of the chief literary society of his time. 
After Jonson the chief dramatists of James i.'s reign were Francis 
Beaumont and John Fletcher, who wrote many plays in partner- 
ship, and John Webster, a man of mighty tragic genius. Under 
Charles i., Philip Massinger and John Ford carried on the 



-I7I4-] GREAT BRITAIN UNDER THE STEWARTS 53! 

Elizabethan tradition. But the character of the drama changed 
slowly but sui-ely, becoming more fantastic, extravagant, and 
profligate. Yet good pieces were still wi-itten until the closing of 
the playhouses in 16-42, and James Shirley, the last of the " Eliza- 
bethan " dramatists, lived to see the theatres reopened in 1(300. 
After the Restoration di-amatic fashions changed, though the plays 
of the great period were stiU admired and acted, and John Dryden 
(1031-1700), the foremost man who wi-ote for the stage, based the 
style of his later dramas on the Elizabethans. However, in his 
earlier pieces Dryden had imitated the classical French school, and 
had adopted the heroic rhyming couplet as his di*amatic metre. 
The theatre now became limited to bombastic and empty " heroic " 
tragedy, and to bright and witty but coarse comedies of manners, 
the work of the so-called Restoration dramatists, whose main 
work was done towards the end of the seventeenth century. The 
famous attack of the Non-juring divine, Jeremy Collier, on the 
profligacy of the stage, was written under William iii. in 1698. 
Under Queen Anne, Joseph Addison attempted, with no great 
success, to bring into England the severe and stately forms of the 
classic French drama. The stage, still popular as an amusement, 
failed to play the part in the life of the later Stewarts which it had 
taken before the Civil Wars. 

14. The poets of the early Stewarts worthily continued Eliza- 
bethan tradition, and a remarkable aftergrowth of the EKzabethan 
spirit was to be seen in the deKcate school of lyric 
poets which flourished in the middle of the century, ^^^ poe^s. 
and whose most charming representative was Robert 
Herrick. The Laudian revival produced a school of religious 
poets, whose best-known work is to be seen in the quaint piety of 
" holy George Herbert." A deeper and more individual note was 
struck by Jolin Milton (1608-1674), a London scrivener's son, whose 
early verse, sweet, musical, and strong, produced between 1629 and 
1637, would in itseK entitle him to a great place in our literature. 
Called away from poetry by travel and politics, he wi'ote no verse, 
save a few masterly sonnets, for more than twenty years, lavishing 
his great powers on his routine work as Latin secretary to the 
council of state set up after Charles i.'s death, and only employing 
his pen on political pamphleteering, the acrimony and narrowness 
of which are redeemed by its splendid eloquence. The Restoration 
sent the CromweUian partisan into a retirement which was made 
more irksome by his blindness and domestic troubles. His austere 
and somewhat impracticable character had kept him aloof from his 



532 GREAT BRITAIN UNDER THE STEWARTS [1603- 

age even in the days of his pamphlet- writing-. He was doubly lonely 
when, amidst the riot of the Restoration, his g-enius attained its 
loftiest heights in Paradise Lost, which wedded the severest and 
sternest spirit of Puritanism to the most exquisite and scholarly 
music. Yet sound critics, like Dryden, at once recognized the 
unique greatness of the Puritan epic, and to men who loathed' his 
politics and religion, Milton's solitary figure represented all that 
was most characteristic of English literature. 

15. After Milton's death, Dryden represented the prevailing 

tendency in our poetry. He stood as literary oracle to the end of 

, the century in much the same position as Ben Jonson 
Dryden and ,-,... t . • tt- ^' 

the poetry n^d attained m a previous age. His generation was 

of the Re- largely influenced by the dominant classic school of 
storation. j^j-ance. The spontaneous poetry of emotion was now 
succeeded by the studied poetry of the intelligence, and it was 
characteristic that Dry den's most famous verses, Absalom and 
AcMtophel, and The Hind and the Panther, dealt with such sub- 
jects as the Popish Plot and the religious controversies excited 
by James il.'s attempt to win back England to' Rome. For the 
naturalness and freshness of the older poetry we have noTT to go 
from the fashionable versifiers to such works as the vivid and life- 
like allegories of the village preacher of the Baptists, John Bunyan, 
whose PilgrirrCs Progress, published in 1678, sets forth the Puritan 
ideal with a dramatic force and vividness that make it a real prose 
poem. Bunyan's were the first great books in modern English 
Uterature written by a man of the people for the people. 

16. Prose thus advanced while poetry declined. Early in the 
century a noble standard of good prose-style was set almost uncon- 
_ . . ,. , _ sciously by the committee of scholars who drew up the 
mentofa Authorized Version of the Bible. The majestic but 
modern involved periods of Elizabethan prose still formed the 

model of the stately periods of Clarendon's History 
of the Behellion, of the poetic and luscious eloquence of Jeremy 
Taylor, and of the rich meditative soliloquies of Sir Thomas Browne, 
the Norwich physician. As men read more widely ^nd more 
hurriedly, the style of books began gradually to assimilate itseK to 
the spoken speech. A crowd of pamphlets and newspapers, pro- 
duced by the Civil Wars and the fierce party strife of the later 
seventeenth century, helped forward the creation of a natural prose. 
Dryden' s famous critical works first gave the new prose the stamp 
of a high style and the sanction of a great name. French influence 
is as decisive on the development of our prose as on the new 



-1714I GREAT BRITAIN UNDER THE STEWARTS 533 

departure in our poetry. Before the end of the century, a nervous, 
simple, and idiomatic standard of composition had become established 
which greatly raised the level of all the journeymen work of 
literature and of the books whose importance rests in facts and 
arguments rather than in their style. It attained its culmination 
in the age of Queen Anne, when the periodical essay which began 
with Steele's Tatler in 1709, became famous when Addison joined 
him in 1711 in starting the Spectator, which " brought philosophy 
out of closets, libraries, and schools, to dweU in clubs and assemblies, 
at tea-tables and coffee-houses." 



Books recommended for the Further Study of the Period 

1603-1714 

S. R. Gardiner's elaborate investigations cover the period 1603-1656, and 
are detailed, careful, impartial, and authoritative. His work is published as 
History of England to the Outbreak of the Great Civil War, 1603-1642 (10 vols.). 
History of the Great Civil War, 1642-1649 (4 vols.), and History of the Com- 
monwealth and Protectorate, 1649-1656 (3 vols.). It is continued in C. H. Firth's 
Last Years of the Protectorate, 1656-1658 (2 vols.). Gardiner's short books, the 
Puritan Revolution, the Thirty Tear^ War (both in "Longmans' Epochs of 
Modem History"), and CromwelVs Place in History, give briefly some of his 
chief conclusions. C. H. Firth's Oliver Cromwell (" Heroes of the Nations ") 
and CromwelVs Army are of great importance. Airy's English Restoration and 
Louis XIV., and Morris's Age of Anne (both in " Epochs of Modem History "), 
are useful for the latter part of the period. For ecclesiastical history, Frere's 
History of the English Church under Elizabeth and James I., W. H. Hutton's 
History of the English Church from Charles I. to Anne, W. A. Shaw's History 
of the Church during the Commonwealth, and H. Wakeman's TTie Church and 
the Puritans 1570-1660. The Oxford translation of Ranke's History of England 
in the Seventeenth Century (6 vols.), and J. R. Seeley'a Growth of British 
Policy (2 vols.), are of special value for foreign policy. Lucy Hutchinson's 
Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson and the Memoirs of the Verney Family (4 vols.) 
throw light on English society of the Puritan period ; while Pepys' and 
Evelyn's Diaries illustrate the social life of the age of the Restoration ; and 
Macaulay's History of England tells with great detail and picturesqueness the 
history of the reigns of James 11. and William iii., and G. M. Trevelyan's 
England under the Stuarts ably sketches the genera-1 tendencies of the period. 
The period is covered by three volumes of Longmans' Political History of 
England, vol. vii., 1603-1660, by F. C. Montague ; vol. viii., 1660-1702, by 
R. Lodge ; and vol. ix., 1702-1760, by I. S. Leadam. 



534 GREAT BRITAIN UNDER THE STEWARTS [1603- 



GENEALOGY OF THE STEWART KINGS IN SCOTLAND AND 

ENGLAND 

Robert i., Bruce, King of Scots. 

I (d. 1329). 

Margaret, m. Walter, Stewart 

I of Scotland. 

Robert 11., King of Scots, 

I 1371-^1390. 

Robert iii., King of Scots, 

I 1390-1406. 

James i., King of Scots, 

I 1406-1437. 

James 11., King of Scots, 

I 1437-1460. 

James iii., King of Scots, 
Henry vii. I 1460-1488, 

The Earl of Angus, (2) m. Margaret, m. (1) James iv., King of Scots, 
I I 1488-1513. 



Margaret, 

m. Matthew Stewart, 

earl of Lennox. 



James v. of Scots, 
1513-1542, 
m. Mary of Guise. 



Henry Lord Darnley, m. Mary Queen of Scots, 
I 1542-1567. 

James vi, of Scotland (1567-1625), and i. of England, 1603-1625. 
m. Anne of Denmark. 



Henry, prince of Wales, Charles i., 1625-1649, Elizabeth, m. Frederick, 

d. 1612. nio Henrietta Maria of France. Elector Palatine. 



Charles ii., 

1660-1685. 
m. Catharine 
of Braganza. 

(illegitimate) 
James, duke 
of Monmouth. 



Mary, m. 
William 11. 
of Orange. 



James ii., 

1685-1688, 

m. (1) Anne Hyde. 

(2) Mary of 

Modena. 



I (1) 

William hi., m. Mary, 
1689-1694. 
William, alone, 1694-1702. 



Charles Prince Sophia, 

Louis, Rupert, m. Elector 
Elector of Hanover. 

Palatine. 



I I 

(1) (2) 

Anne, James, 

1702-1714, the Old 

m. George of Pretender, 

Denmark. d. 1765. 



Georgei., 
1714-1727 
(see table on 
pages 640-641). 



Charles Edward, 

the Young Pretender, 

d. 1788. 



Henry, duke of 

York, and Cardinal, 

d. 1807. 



■1714] GREAT BRITAIN UNDER THE STEWARTS 535 



BOURBON KINGS OF FRANCE 

Henry iv., 

1589-1610 

(formerly duke of Bourbon and king of Navarre ; descendant in male 

line of Robert, sixth son of Louis ix.) 



Louis xiii., 
1610-1643. 



Henrietta INIaria, 
m. Charles i. of England. 



Louis xiv., 
1643-1715. 

Louis the Dauphin. 

I. 

Loins, 

duke of Burgundy. 

I 
Louis xv., 
1715-1774. 

I 
Louis the Dauphin. 

I 



Philip, 
Duke of Orleans. 

Philip, duke of Orleans, 

Regent after 1715, 

great-grandfather of 

Louis Philippe, 

king of the French, 

1830-1848. 



Louis xvi., 

1774-1792. 

Louis the Dauphin, 
called Louis xvii. 



Louis xviii., 
1814-1824. 



Charles x. 
1824-1830. 



LIST OF MINISTRIES AFTER 1689 

1689 1696. Mixed Ministry of Whigs and Tories. 

1696-1701. First Whig Ministry of the Junto. 

1701-1708. Mixed Ministries of varying character under Marlborough and 

Godolphin. 
1708-1710. Whig Ministry under Marlborough and Godolphin. 
1710-1714. Oxford and Boliugbroke Ministry (Tory). 






BOOK VII 

THE HOUSE OF HANOVER AND THE RULE 
OF THE ARISTOCRACY (i7i4-iS2o) 

CHAPTER I 
GEORGE I. (1714-1727) 

Chief Dates : 

1714. Accession of George i. 

1715. Jacobite Revolt. 

1716. The Triple Alliance. 

1717. The Whig Schism. 

1718. Battle of Cape Passaro. 

1720. South Sea Bubble. 

1721. Walpole becomes Prime Minister. 
1725. First Treaty of Vienna. 

1727. Death of George i. 

1. George, elector of Hanover, was more than fifty years old when 
he became king of Great Britain, He was a slow-minded, heavy 
_, _ man, with fixed habits. He understood foreign politics, 

sion of though he always looked at them from the point of 

George I., view of his electorate, which he had ruled well as a 
despot, and to which he was sincerely attached. He 
never took the trouble to learn English, and was ignorant of Eng- 
lish politics and English ways. He knew, however, that he owed 
his throne to the Whigs, and was content to entrust them with 
the government of his kingdom. He got rid of the Tory ministers 
of Queen Anne, against whom the Whigs clamoured for venge- 
ance. Oxford was impeached and imprisoned in the Tower. 
Bolingbroke fled to France, where he became the secretary of 
state of the pretender. Ormonde followed him into exile, and 
sentences of attainder were passed against both. The Tory 
party was destroyed by the treason of its chiefs. Plain English- 
men thought that the Tories wished to bring back despotism 
536 



I7I4-] GEORGE /. 53;^ 

and popery, and no long-er g^ve them their support. The times 
n^ere chang-ing, and the strong High Church feeling ^he long 
which had been the main strength of the Tories Whig rule, 
rapidly declined. For two generations the Whigs had 1714-1761. 
a great majority in both Houses of Parliament as weU as the favour 
of the crown. From 1714 to 1761 none but Whigs held office. 

2. During the long Whig rule the fuU effects of the revolution 
of 1688 worked themselves out. Cabinet government, which had 
made great strides both under William iii. and Anne, ^. 
was finally established, owing to the harmony of policy custom of 
between the Whig leaders and the two foreign kings the eonsti- 
who now governed England in succession. The result 
of this was that a much greater change was brought about in the 
working of our constitution than by any of the new laws which 
had been passed as the direct result of the expulsion of the Stewarts. 
The formal law of the constitution remained as it had been, but 
there gradually grew up a new custom of the constitution which 
effected a real revolution. By law the executive power still re- 
mained in the hands of the king and his advisers. But the custom 
grew up which in practice compelled the king to chose as his 
ministers the leaders of the party which possessed the 
confidence of the majority of the House of Commons, system. 
These ministers formed the Cabinet — that is, a small 
body of men agreeing on all the main questions of the day, and 
having at its back the support of the House of Commons. The 
king acted mainly by the advice of his cabinet, and was often com- 
pelled to follow its recommendations, whether he agreed with them 
or not. The result of this was twofold. Many legal rights of the 
crown fell into disuse. For instance, it ceased to refuse its con- 
sent to laws which had passed through parliament. The main 
power of the crown, the power of governing the country, imper- 
ceptibly passed away from the king and went to his advisers. 
Henceforth the power of the king became much diminished, though 
the authority of the crown, as exercised by its constitutional 
advisers, was continually growing. The result was that the Com- 
mons, not the king, had the ultimate voice in the government of 
England. For the Commons' control over the public jj^g supre- 

purse kept the Lords as well as the crown in sub- maey of the 
... r^, -r^ « -I- T 1 n 1 J. Commons, 

jection. The House of Lords gradually lost co- 
ordinate authority with the Commons, and became a regulating, 
checking, and revising chamber, compelled to give way before the 
strongly expressed opinion of the popular representatives. 

Ill T* 



538 GEORGE I. [1714- 

3, TLe House of Commons thus became supreme, but the result 
of tliis cliange was to make England an aristocracy rather than 
The Whig ^ democracy. There were two chief reasons for this : 
apisto- one was to be found in the temper of the people, and 

epaey. the other in the fashion in which the House of 

Commons was elected. Few Englishmen troubled themselves 
about politics except lords, country gentlemen, and rich merchants. 
The ordinary man thought it quite natural that the landlords 
should govern the country, and was quite content to follow their 
lead and receive his opinions from them. Moreover, since the 
failure of Cromwell's reformed plan of elections, the House of 
Commons remained chosen after the same fashion that had pre- 
vailed since the Middle Ages. Few members were really appointed 
by the people. The counties, which returned two members each, 
whether they were big or little, rich or poor, populous or desolate, 
were looked upon as the freest electing bodies, though none but 
landholders had votes in county elections. The boroughs were 
far worse, for while some great towns returned no members 
at all, many small places, of the sort afterwards called "rotten 
boroughs," elected their two representatives each. It was not hard 
under these circumstances for rich people to buy estates which 
included boroughs of this description, and then return what 
members they chose. Even the counties and the larger boroughs 
could be Lufluenced by the great landholders, or by the government 
of the day. Bribery or intimidation came in when influence was 
not enough. It was found that with these narrow constituencies 
it was easy for a ring of politicians to return a large proportion of 
members through their personal influence. Electioneering, or the 
management of elections, became a regular system, and side by side 
with it arose the arts of parliamentary management, by which the 
ministry kept its hold by flattery or corruption on the members 
who were returned to parliament. Skill in these arts made the 
"Whig nobles the real rulers of the country. They owned the small 
boroughs and controlled the counties ; they dictated the king's 
poKcy ; their favour alone opened up the road to power and place 
both in Church and state. Thus for fifty years the Whig aristocracy 
governed the country, owing to their control over king and 
Commons. It was natural that they should forget their old 
popular cries. Thinking that the country had got aU it wanted 
by the revolution, they became very conservative, opposing all new 
and sweeping changes. But they gave England a long period of 
sound and careful rule, during which the fierce religious and 



-1 715.] GEORGE 7. 539 

political passions of the Stewart period gradually died away. 
Under their prudent but uneventful government, England grew 
more rich and prosperous, and neither king nor Commons really 
saw how they were both alike in the hands of an aristocratic clique. 

4. The Tories were powerless and unpopular, and the Jacobites, 
seeing that the way of bringing back the pretender by intrigue had 
failed, made a half-hearted effort to upset the throne 

of the Hanoverian king by open revolt. In 1715 a hites r7l5 
Jacobite conspiracy was formed to excite rebellion 
both in England and Scotland. lU-luck attended every step of 
the desperate movement, Louis xiv., from whom much was hoped, 
died at this time, and the regent, Philip, duke of Orleans, who 
governed in the name of the little Louis xv., the late king's great- 
grandson and successor, wished to be on friendly terms with George i., 
and would give the Jacobites no help. The pretender was duU and 
ignorant. He had so little confidence in Bolingbroke, his only able 
adviser, that the exile before long gave up his cause in despair, and 
strove to make his peace with the new king. Prompt measures nipped 
in the bud the EngKsh conspiracy. A Hiot Act was 
passed which gave the ministers increased power to ^^^ ^^^^ 
put down popular disturbances. The plotters' plans 
were discovered, and the leading Jacobites were arrested before 
they could do any harm. The result was that it was only in 
Northumberland that the English Jacobites were able to rise in 
revolt, and here the rebellion was insignificant. A few hundred 
country gentlemen and their retainers rose in arms under the 
incompetent leadership of Thomas Forster, the member for 
Northumberland. But the mass of the people would not join 
them, and they wandered about aimlessly, not knowing what to do. 

5. In Scotland the rebellion was much more serious. In the 
hills of the south the Jacobite lords and gentry took arms under 
Lord Kenmure, and, crossing into Northumberland, jj^g YLigh- 
joined Forster and his followers. But the combined lands of 
forces were insignificant, and the real danger to Scotland. 
Hanover came, not from the south, but from the north. Beyond 
the Grampians and the Firth of Clyde the Highland clans still 
retained their ancient freedom. The union made no practical 
difference to them, and the clan chieftains still ruled over their 
kinsfolk and tribesmen, as careless of the government at West- 
minster as their fathers had been of the government at Edinburgh. 
The Highlanders were poor and rude ; they lived in miserable 
turf-waUed cots; their only wealth was in cattle, and their only 



540 GEORGE I, [1715- 

language was G-aelic. They were passionately devcJted to their 
native glens, and fervently loyal to their chieftains. They kn^w 
nothing of the disputes of Whig and Tory, Prelatist and Presby- 
terian. Many were avowed Catholics, and most were ignorant, 
superstitions, and fickle. Their good qiialities were their polite- 
ness, devotion to old poetry, their simplicity, bravery, and con- 
tentment; but they were idle, untruthful, revengeful, and quick 
to shed blood. Rival clans waged constant war against each other, 
but would sometimes unite to raid the farms and plunder the cattle 
of their Saxon, or English-speaking, neighbours in the Lowlands. 
The gentry were often educated in France, and were thus made 
good Catholics and loyal partisans of the house of Stewart. Besides 
their traditional patriarchal influence over their clansmen, they 
enjoyed in many cases a grant of regality, or of royal powers, which 
enabled them to exercise an hereditary jurisdiction over their 
district. The greatest clan was still that of the Campbells, whose 
head, now duke of Argyll, was a great Lowland noble, as well as 
the first of the Highland chieftains. As in the days of Montrose, 
the Campbells were stiU Whigs, Presbyterians, and enemies of the 
Stewarts. This made the lesser clans Tories, Jacobites, and foes 
of the Protestant succession. They had long feared the aggressions 
of the Campbells, and their alarm was now the greater since 
the Campbell chieftain was one of King George's most trusted 
councillors. Their interests, their sympathies, and their love of 
adventure combined to make the Tory clans, as they were called, 
as ripe for revolt as they had been when their forefathers followed 
Montrose or Dundee to battle for the Stewarts. 

6. The signal for revolt was given by John Erskine, earl of 
Mar, sometime a member of Bolingbroke's Tory ministry, but so 
weak and changeable a politician that he was nick- 
bite rising named " Bobbing John." On September 6, 1715, he 
of 1715. raised the standard of James viii. in Braemar, and 

at once rallied the Macdonalds, the Camerons, the Stewarts, the 
Frasers, the Mackenzies, and the other Tory clans to the Jacobite 
cause. Save in the west, where Argyll kept the country loyal to 
King George, the whole of the Highlands was soon under Mar's 
power, and with a little more energy, he might easily have 
made himself master of the Lowlands, where disgust at the union 
made even Whigs and Presbyterians lukewarm for the cause of 
King George. As it was, Mar reached no further south than 
Perth, where he uselessly lingered while Argyll collected an army 
against him. Hearing, however, that the southern insurgents 



-I7i6.] GEORGE I, 54 1 

were liardly pressed, Mar despatched Brigadier Macintosli, with 
nearly two thousand men, to swell their numbers. This force 
marched right through Fife and the Lothians without meeting 
any opposition, and joined Kenmure and Forster, who were now 
in Scotland, at Kelso. After much indecision, the united forces 
resolved to invade England, and marched through Cumberland and 
Lancashire. On November 9 they reached Preston, but armies of 
superior strength surrounded them on every side, and they were 
ill-discipKned and badly led. After a mere show of resistance, the 
whole force surrendered on November 13. 

7. On the day of the capitulation at Preston, Mar and his 
Highlanders, who at last had moved south from Perth, engaged 
in battle with Argyll on the Sheriffmuir of Menteith, « ... _ 
near Dunblane. The fight was indecisive, the right Sheriff- 
wing of each army defeating the left wing of the muip, 1715, 
enemy, and neither Mar nor Argyll had the skiU or resolution 
to profit by the measure of success that they gained. The fruits 
of victory remained, however, with the Hanoverians. Mar retreated 
to Perth, and on the approach of winter many of the clansmen 
went back to their homes. There was a slight rally towards the 
end of the year, for on December 22 the pretender himself landed 
at Peterhead. But the Highlanders lost all heart when they found 
that the silent, melancholy prince had neither courage to lead them 
nor faith in his own cause. Early in 1716 Argyll ^ 

drove the Jacobite army out of Perth, its headquarters, the pebel- 
and a few days later both the pretender and Mar ^^^n. 
slunk back to France. The Highlanders disbanded after the 
flight of their leaders, and no attempt was made to punish them. 
The vengeance of the government feU rather upon the English 
and Lowland lords, taken prisoners at Preston. Several of these, 
including Kenmure, were executed ; Avhile others, among whom 
vras Forster, escaped death by breaking out of prison. 

8. According to the Triennial Act a general election should 
have been held in 1716, when the country was still excited by the 
recent revolt. Knowing that their success was due ,,., ^ g 
rather to the unpopularity of the Stewarts than to tennial Act, 
the merits of the new dynasty, the ministry feared to ^716. 

risk a general election at so critical a time. They repealed the 
Triennial Act, substituting for it the Septennial Act, increasing the 
length of Parliament to seven years, which remained law till 1911. 
This measure made the House of Commons more independent of its 
constituents, and so made it easier for the Whig lords to manage it. 



542 GEORGE I. [1714- 

9. From G-eorge i.'s accession to 1717 the ministerial liistory 
was uneventful; but tlie older generation of WMg statesmen 
The Wh"e passed away, and Marlborougli, tkough stiU alive, 
ministpy, was broken in health and trusted by nobody. Their 
1714-1717, removal left Yiscount Townshend, a Norfolk noble- 
man, who held one of the secretaryships of state, the chief 
of the ministers. Under him were his brother-in-law, Robert 
Walpole, chancellor of the exchequer. General Stanhope, the 
sometime commander of the English forces in Spain, the other 
secretary of state, and Sunderland, the lord-Heutenant of Ireland. 
Dissensions, however, soon arose among the Whig magnates. One 
section, chief among whom were Stanhope and Sunderland, clung 
to the foreign policy held by the Whigs of Anne's time, and 
sympathized with George's efforts to continue it. 

10. In 1716 Stanhope went with George to Hanover, and 
became responsible for a Triple Alliance, which George there 
The Whiff concluded with Holland and France. Townshend and 
schism of Walpole, who, like the Tories under Anne, disliked 
1717. unnecessary foreign complications, denounced the 
treaty as Hanoverian, and resigned office in 1717. They united 
with George, prince of Wales, who was on bad terms with his 
father, in a furious opposition to the king and the ministers of 
his choice. Their removal broke the Whig party into two. 

11. Stanhope became first lord of the treasury, and Sunderland 
secretary of state, the other secretaryship falling to Joseph 
Addison, the famous Whig essayist and pamphleteer. The policy 
of the new government was more active than that of Townshend. 
At home they showed a more aristocratic spirit than any other 
ministry of the time. Anxious to retain power for the existing 
The Peer- peers, they introduced, in 1719, a Peerage Bill, which 
age Bill, provided that only six new peers should be added to 
17^®* the existing number, and only allowed the king to 
exercise his right of calling fresh members to the House of Lords 
on the extinction of existing peerages. The authors of the measure 
hoped to make the Whig majority in the Lords secure against a 
Tory ministry fiUing the Upper House with new peers, as they 
had done under Anne. They also sought by it to protect the 
independence of the House of Lords of the king just as the 
Septennial Act had made the Commons more independent. The 
effect of the measure would have been to hand over the government 
to a ring of great families, whose power could only be overthrown 
by revolution. However, the opposition of Walpole and the Tories 



-I7I9-] GEORGE I. 543 

wrecked the bill in the Commons, after it had easily passed the 
Lords. In ecclesiastical matters the Stanhope ministry showed a 
great dislike to the High Church party. They repealed the Act 
against Occasional Conformity and the Schism Act, and thought 
of abolishing the Test and Corporation Acts. Before they could 
do this, they were driven from power. 

12. The foreign policy of the Stanhope ministry was active and 
enterprising. The government, as we have seen, owed its origin to 
the Triple Alliance of 1716. This was a union of Eng- Foreign 
land and Holland, now often described as the Maritime policy, 

171 7—1 790 

Powers, with France to maintain the peace of Europe 
on the basis of the treaty of Utrecht. It was strange that France 
should have joined with its old enemies, England and HoUand, in 
upholding a treaty by which France had lost so much. But PhUip, 
duke of Orleans, the regent of France for Louis xv., was very 
jealous of Philip of Spain, and anxious to secure the throne of 
France for himseH to the exclusion of Philip in the event of the 
death of the sickly young king. Moreover, Philip of Spain, 
guided by his Italian adviser. Cardinal Alberoni, was 
making a great eSort to win back for Spain its old 
position in Europe. The first step towards this was to restore the 
Spanish power in Italy. To do this was, of course, a violation of 
the Utrecht settlement. Hence the French king of Spain broke 
away from his feUow-countrymen, and disturbed all Europe by 
efforts to upset the treaty. Finding no support among the chief 
powers, Alberoni turned to two famous men whose rivalries had 
long distracted northern Europe. These were Charles xii., the 
last great king of Sweden, and his successful rival, Peter the 
Great, the first great tsar of Russia. The old enemies were per- 
suaded to unite against the parties to the Triple Alliance, and 
there was talk of the Swedes landing in Scotland to stir up a new 
Jacobite revolt. Nothing came of these wild projects, but a 
serious attack was made upon the recent acquisitions of Austria 
and Savoy in Italy. The Spaniards conquered Sardiaia and Sicily, 
but their further progress was stopped when Admiral Byng won 
for the English fleet the supremacy in the Mediter- Battle of 
ranean in the battle off Cajpe Passaro in Sicily (1718). Cape Pas- 
The Emperor Charles vi., who had been holding aloof ^^^°' *^^ * 
from the maritime powers, because of his dislike of the Barrier 
Treaty, was now forced by fear for Italy to join them and France. 
His inclusion converted the Triple Alliance into a Quadruple 
Alliance. In 1719 Alberoni feU by a court intrigue, and next 



544 GEORGE I. [1720- 

year peace was secured. The cliief result of the troubles was that 
the emperor obtained Sicily, forcing Yictor Amadous to accept the 
less fertile and wealthy island of Sardinia. Henceforth the duke 
of Savoy was called liing of Sardinia. 

13. The year 1720 was marked by a great commercial crisis, 
known as the bursting of the South Sea Bubble. Ever since the 

treaty of Utrecht trade had been particularly brisk, 
Sea Bubble, and many people were looking out for good invest- 
1720. ments for the money they had saved. In these cir- 

cumstances joint stock companies were floated in large numbers, 
and found their shares eagerly taken up. Conspicuous among such 
undertakings was the South Sea Company, a body of merchants 
formed by Harley in 1711, and to which had been given all the 
rights of trade with Spanish America granted to England at 
Utrecht. The company was successful in its commerce and paid 
good dividends. Though much was said about the great wealth 
to be gained by trade with the South Seas, Spanish jealousy strictly 
limited the operations of the society, and it sought to increase 
its business in other directions. In particular, the South Sea 
Company entered into competition with the Bank of England for 
the conduct of government financial business and the management 
of the National Debt. The ministers gladly accepted the large 
sum of money which the directors offered to the state for these 
privileges. The company sought to get its return by persuading 
holders of government stock to exchange their state bonds for 
South Sea stock, holding out as the inducement the vast profits 
they were likely to make. The plan was successful; there was 
such a run on South Sea shares that their price went up tenfold: 
The speculation in them fomented the gambling spirit which 
now seized upon all classes of society. All sorts of companies 
were started, and people were found to invest their money in the 
most fooKsh of them. Among them were companies for making 
salt water fresh, for importing jackasses from Spain, and for " an 
undertaking which should in due time be revealed." 

14. Before long the reaction came. The South Sea Company 
was so afraid of the effect of the bubble companies on its own 
The b t shares that it prosecuted some of them. A panic soon 
ing of the set in. The fraudulent ventures coUapsed altogether, 
bubble. ^^^ ^jj^Q value of the shares of even the soundest under- 
takings went down so rapidly that those who had bought them 
when they were artificially inflated, found themselves ruined. There 
was everywhere panic, suspicion, and distress. There was a loud 



-1727.] GEORGE I. 545 

outcry for tlie punisliment of those who had lured the dupes on to 
ruin. The directors of the South Sea Company were disgraced 
and stripped of their property. Indignation rose high when it was 
discovered that many of the ministers had made large sums hy 
speculation, and some had received bribes from company promoters 
to further their criminal ends. The ministers were fiercely attacked 
in parKament. Aislabie, the chancellor of the exchequer, was 
turned out of the House for corruption ; and one guilty minister 
committed suicide. Stanhope died suddenly ; and Sunderland, after 
being acquitted of the charges of malversation brought against him, 
retired from office, and soon afterwards died. 

15. The misfortunes of their rivals gave the leaders of the 

Whig schism of 1717 a chance to win back place. In the general 

distress of the nation, it was thought wise that the 

Walpole 
party should again present a united front. Towns- ppime 

hend and "Walpole came back to office, and in 1721 minister, 
Walpole became the chief minister as first lord of the ^ '^^* 
treasury and chancellor of the exchequer. He was the ablest 
financier of his generation, and his judicious measures soon re- 
stored public credit and confidence. 

16. A long calm succeeded the storm of 1720. Walpole (Sir 
Robert Walpole after 1725) remained in power for the Death of 
rest of the old king's reign, and under him England Georg-e I., 
again became peaceful and prosperous. In 1727 *'^'* 
George i. died, when on a visit to Hanover, and was succeeded by 
his son George, prince of Wales. 



CHAPTER II 
GEORGE II. (1727-1760) 

Chief Dates: 

1727. Accession of George 11. 
1731. Second Treaty of Vienna. 

1737. Porteous Eiots. 

1738. Third Treaty of Vienna, 

1739. War with Spain ; beginnings of the Methodist movement. 

1742. Fall of Walpole. 

1743. Battle of Dettingen; England joins the war of the Austrian 

succession. 

1745. Jacobite revolt ; battle of Fontenoy. * 

1746. Battle of Culloden. 
1748. Treaty of Aachen. 
1754. Death of Henry Pelham. 

1756. Beginning of Seven Years' War. 

1757. Pitt's Ministry formed ; battle of Plassey. 

1759. Battles of Quebec and Minden. 

1760. Death of George 11. 

1. GrEOEGE II. was over forty wlien he became king, and was 
almost as mncli of a G-erman as his father, though he could speak 
' jj English fluently, and had more knowledge of British 
and Capo- affairs than George i. He was regular, business-like, 
line of straightforward, just, a brave soldier, and a shrewd 

observer of foreign politics. He was smaU-minded, 
vain, selfish, hot-tempered, greedy for money, and a despiser 
of learning. He was under the influence of his clever wife, 
Caroline of Anspach, who showed her good sense by inducing 
her husband to keep Walpole in power, though George disliked 
him because he had been the faithful minister of his father. The 
result of this was that Walpole remained in office for more than 
twenty years. 

2. The long ministry of Walpole best illustrates the strong and 
the weak points of the rule of the Whig aristocracy. He was a 
shrewd man of business, whose aim was to keep his party in power 
and retain for himself the chief position in his party. He was 
no orator, but a skilful debater, who thoroughly xmderstood the 
546 



i;27.] GEORGE II. 547 

management of men, and had a complete insiglit into the temper 

of the House of Commons. He was a successful administrator and 

a very able financier. He disliked violent cliang-es, j,, 

and was careful not to rouse up opposition by attack- and policy 

ino" vested interests. "Let sleepine* doe-s lie" and ofWalpole, 

. . . 1721-1742. 

quieta non imovere were his favourite sayings. In 

this spirit he sought to conciliate the Dissenters without irritating 
the Church. The Dissenters demanded the repeal of the Test and 
Corporation Acts, and Walpole professed every sympathy with 
them. But he kept putting them off from year to year, and at 
last refused to carry out their wishes. He was afraid to stir up the 
fierce ecclesiastical passions which had brought such harm to the 
Whigs in the days of the trial of Sacheverell. But any measure 
that helped the Dissenters without annoying the High Churchmen 
met his entire approval. Though he would not repeal the Test 
Act, he passed every year an Indemnity Act, by which the penalties 
imposed on those who broke the Test Act were remitted. This 
curious compromise went on from 1727 to 1828. All that time the 
Test Act remained the law, but the Dissenters who held office in 
defiance of the law were excused by annual acts from the punish- 
ment they had incurred for breaking it. 

3. Walpole practised with great skill the arts of managing 
elections and controlling the House of Commons. He took care 
to conciliate public opinion and to please the average Papiiamen- 
EngHshman. But he was quite willing to bribe or tapy man- 
to browbeat, when more legitimate measures were not ^S "^ " • 
sufficient for his purpose. He had no high ideals, but was coarse, 
callous, and corrupt. Under him bribery became a regular system, 
and many members of parliament were kept faithful to the govern- 
ment by sinecure places and even direct payments of money. Yet 
crooked as were his means, Walpole's ends were patriotic and 
honourable. He saw that the country required rest after the 
storms through which it had passed, and aimed at giving it what he 
knew was best for it. . He brought the country gentry round from 
Jacobitism to support the new dynasty. He kept the merchants 
and tradesmen Whigs by his sound commercial and financial 
measures. Many more high-minded statesmen have done less good 
to their country than this sagacious worldling. 

4. Walpole was so much the strongest of the ministers that he 
was able to assume a position of superiority over his colleagues 
that no previous minister had aspired to. It took a long time to 
reconcile Englishmen to the idea of a cabinet; but they were 



548 GEORGE II. [1727- 

even more suspicious of the notion of a Vrime Minister, thinking* 
that such an office threatened both the supreme position of the 
Walpole the crown and the right of all the chief ministers to be 
fipst Ppime regarded as eq[ual associates with each other. Under 
Minister. William ill. and Anne, the monarch presided at cabinet 
councils, but when the Hanoverian kings absented themselves 
from a body whose deliberations they could not readily follow, it 
was found necessary for some one minister to take the chair and 
direct the debates. Moreover, the growth of the party system made 
a leader a necessity, to whom the party could look up for direction 
and encouragement. Walpole's great ability and masterful dis- 
position combined to make him the first real prime minister that 
English history knows. Yet, even when exercising the power, 
Walpole disclaimed the name of prime minister, because his 
enemies regarded it as a matter of reproach that he seemed to 
dictate the whole policy of the government, and degrade colleagues 
who should have been his equals into subordinates compelled to 
carry out his orders, 

5. Walpole had to exert all his skill to keep order among the 
ministers. Every servant of the crown resented his chief's habit of 
The oppo- domineering", and was indignant that his own power 
sition to was so circumscribed. It had been common in earlier 

Walpole. ^g^y-g £^)j. Q-^Q minister to intrigue against another, but 
Walpole thought that the party system required from all ministers 
loyalty to the prime minister, and a general acceptance of his policy. 
His colleagues cherished their independence, and strove hard to un- 
dermine his influence. The result was that minister after minister 
was brought into conflict with him, and, being worsted, was driven 
from power. So early as 1724 he dismissed Lord Carteret, the 
king's favourite minister, from the office of secretary of state, 
because Carteret did his best to prevent Walpole establishing a 
cordial alliance with France. Pulteney, the chief Whig orator, 
also broke with him, and Walpole came into conflict with his 
brother-in-law, Townshend, who was annoyed at his increasing 
ascendency. Walpole himself put the real cause of the quarrel 
clearly enough when he said, "As long as the firm was Towns- 
hend and Walpole, the utmost harmony prevailed, but when the 
firm became Walpole and Townshend, everything went wrong." 
Townshend maintained that as secretary of state he was respon- 
sible to the king only, and not to the first lord of the treasury. 
As he could not gain his point, he resigned office, and retired into 
private life. The majority of the fallen ministers, however, plunged 



-1742.] GEORGE II. 549 

into furious opposition, and denounced Walpole for ambition and 
corruption. They called themselves the Patriot Whigs, and took a 
very high line in everything. Walpole treated them 
with great contempt. " All these men," he said, '' have whies 
their price." But he did not choose to pay the high 
price necessary to buy back the support of the factious seceders 
from his party. He preferred to go on ruling with the help of men 
of less brilliant parts but of more trustworthy character. Con- 
spicuous among those who still adhered to him were Thomas Pelham, 
duke of Newcastle-under-Lyme, and his brother, Henry Pelham. 

6. Walpole took little pains to conciliate the younger generation 
of politicians, and most of the rising men joined the Patriots in 
opposing him. In his scornful way Walpole laughed The "Boys" 
at them, calling them the " Boys," and affecting to and Wil- 
despise them. But one of the " boys " was a man of ^^^"^ ^^^^' 
far loftier ideals and more power to move men than Walpo/e 
had ever possessed. This was WiUiam Pitt, whose impassioned 
eloquence, unswerving honesty, and contempt for jobbery and the 
tricks of the politician's trade, had ah-eady won for him a unique 
position. Like the Patriots, Pitt and the Boys were aU professed 
Whigs. Since the faU of Bolingbroke the Tory party had been 
represented in the House of Commons by two or three score of 
country gentlemen, despised for their want of ability, Bolingbroke 
and suspected of being more friendly to the pretender and the 
than to King George. However, a revival of the New Tories. 
Tory party was now brought about by the same restless genius 
that had formerly destroyed it. Convinced by his personal rela- 
tions with the pretender that Jacobitism was a lost cause, Boling- 
broke made his peace with the House of Hanover, and in 1723 was 
suffered to return to England. Henceforth he devoted all his social 
charm and literary skill to building up a new Tory party, purged 
of all suspicion of Jacobitism. So loyal was he now to the German 
dynasty that he loudly professed his wish to save the monarchy 
from its dependence on the Whig faction and to inspire it with 
a mission to lead the people and to exercise to the full all its 
prerogatives. Though the old king was not won over, Boling- 
broke found a disciple in his son Frederick, prince of Wales, who 
was on as bad terms with his father as George himself had been 
with George i. Frederick was a shallow, worthless man, but he 
was pleased to pose as a true English prince, and glad to annoy 
his father by associating himself with the opposition to Walpole 
Round his court at Leicester House the chief enemies of Walpole 



550 GEORGE II. [1727- 

met on common ground, and Bolingbroke cleverly suggested the 
part wMcli Frederick was to play by his pamphlet On the Idea of 
a Patriot King. Most of the men of letters lent their pens to the 
opposition. Among them was the poet James Thomson, who wrote 
his Bule Britannia as the popular song of the new national party. 
In a few years a powerful but heterogeneous opposition had at 
least this much unity of policy that it agreed in assailing the prime 
minister. But despite Patriots, Boys, New Tories, and the prince 
of Wales, Walpole still commanded a parliamentary majority, 
as well as the vigorous support of the king, though he lost a 
sturdy friend in 1737 by the death of Queen Caroline. 

7. Gradually the opposition began to make head against the 
minister. Its first triumph was in 1733, when its unreasonable 

clamour forced Walpole to give up his JExcise Scheme, 
of Walpole's on which he had set his heart. This was a plan to 
excise turn the customs duties, first on tobacco and afterwards 

on wine, into excise duties — ^that is to say, to convert 
taxes levied at the ports when the commodities came into the 
country into internal dues, paid at the warehouse when the goods 
were rec][uired for consumption. One of Walpole's chief motives 
for effecting this change was the wide prevalence of smuggling by 
which customs duties were evaded. Another object that he had was 
to make England a central market where all nations could buy and 
sell freely, without their trade being hampered by the necessity of 
paying outport charges. The scheme was a wise one, and Walpole 
believed that, without adding to the burdens borne by taxpayers, it 
would so largely increase the revenue that he would be able to 
conciliate the country gentry by reducing the land tax. Unluckily 
the name " excise " was an unpopular one, partly because it suggested 
the visiting- of every man's house by prying excisemen, and partly 
because it had been borrowed from the Dutch, who were stiU far 
from being loved. The opposition made an unscrupulous use of 
the weapon which prejudice put into their hands. They said that 
Walpole was preparing the way for a general excise, and that his 
excisemen would rob Englishmen of their liberty by violating the 
sanctity of their homes. Walpole held his ground for a time, but 
saw that even if he could carry his plan through parliament, he 
could only enforce it on the people at the risk of bloodshed. At 
last he reluctantly withdrew the scheme, convinced that, however 
wise his design was, it was not expedient to carry it out. 

8. Four years later, in 1737, Walpole received another check. 
The Edinburgh mob, irritated at the harshness of Porteous, the 



-1742.] GEORGE II. 551 

captain of the city guard, "broke open tlie Tolhooth, or city prison, 

and hanged Porteous in the public place of execution. Walpole 

proposed to punish this lawless act by taking away 

the charter of Edinburgh. Again the opposition was teems riots 

up in arms against this attack on the liberties of a in Edin- 

great city. Even the Scotch members, who received a ^^of ^' 

regular salary to vote for the government, refused to 

support the bill, and Walpole dropped the essential parts of it. A 

proposal to give a pension to the murdered man's widow got through 

parliament with the greatest difficulty. 

9. Walpole's foreign policy opened up easier chances of attack 
than his prudent and unadventurous domestic administration. The 
prime minister remained faithful to the principles he 
had upheld when Stanhope drove him from office, and treaties of 
in the fulness of his power had the courage to break Vienna, 
with the bad Whig tradition of excessive interference j^gj ^^ 
with the affairs of Europe. All through his tenure of 
office the peace of Europe was endangered by the persistent efforts 
of Philip V. of Spain to upset the treaty of Utrecht. Urged on by 
his second wife, Elizabeth Farnese, a princess of Parma by birth, 
he strove to establish their children in Italian principalities at the 
expense of Austria. Besides that, Charles vi.^ who still resented 
the Barrier Treaty, continued very angry with England and 
Holland, or, as they were called, the maritime powers. Charles, 
though hating his old rival in Spain, had a common grievance 
with Philip in his dislike of the treaty of Utrecht. At last, in 
1725, a clever Dutch adventurer, named E-ipperda, who had, like 
Alberoni, won the confidence of Philip and his wife, persuaded the 
king and the emperor that they could best attain their ends by 
forgetting their old feuds and making a treaty of alliance. This 
was done by the first treaty of Vienna of 1725. Thereupon the 
maritime powers, inspired by Walpole, united with France, then 
ruled by Cardinal Fleury, in the treaty of Hanover of 1726, which 
aimed at upholding the treaty of Utrecht against Spain and 
Austria. Europe was threatened with a general war, and in 1727 
there was some half-hearted fighting between England and Spain. 
But the firebrand E-ipperda fell suddenly from power like Alberoni, 
and Walpole and Fleury struggled so earnestly for peace that 
hostilities were soon suspended. Spain and England signed, in 1729, 
the peace of Seville, and in 1731 the second treaty of Vienna 
completed the pacification of Europe. It was a great triumph for 
Walpole to have avoided without dishonour a European war. 



552 GEORGE II. [1738- 

10. Two years later anotker war broke out, called the War of 
the Folish Succession, though, in reality one of the chief objects 

for which it was fought was to establish Don Carlos, 
Treaty of "^^^ son of Philip t. and Elizabeth Farnese, on the 
Vienna, throne of IsTaples by the expulsion of the Austrians. 

1738. .France and Spain again united, and Spanish troops 

drove Charles vi. out of Naples and Sicily. It was a glaring 
violation of the treaty of Utrecht, but Walpole steadily refused to 
take any part in it. " This year," he boasted, " ten thousand men 
have been slain in Europe, but not one of them was an Englishman." 
He was as anxious for peace with France as ever, even though he 
knew that Philip v. and Louis xv. had signed a Family Compact 
by which they bound themselves to act against England. The 
result was that Austria had to give way and sign, in 1738, the third 
or definitive treaty of Vienna, which set up a third Bourbon 
monarchy in favour of Don Carlos in Naples. 

11. Many Englishmen, who had no love of war, thought that 
Walpole's desire for peace had carried him too far in not opposing 
Outbreak of ^P^-i^ i^ ^^^ business. The revival of the Spanish 
war with power made politicians exceedingly suspicious of 
Spain, 1739. pj^^jj^p y^ ^nd commercial difficulties soon arose which 
strained the relations between Eng'land and the Peninsula. The 
Spaniards, who claimed a monopoly of all traffic with their colonies, 
bitterly resented the limited right of trade with them given to 
England at Utrecht, and had good reason to complain of the im- 
mense system of smuggling which English sailors established 
under cover of the commercial clauses of the treaty. They care- 
fully searched English vessels for smuggled goods, and loud com- 
plaints were raised of the harshness with which the Spanish 
officials exercised their right of search at the expense of British 
subjects. At last a great cry arose that British honour must be 
vindicated by a declaration of war with Spain, and Walpole was 
bitterly attacked by the opposition for Ms carelessness and contempt 
of his country's interests. The demand became so persistent that 
Walpole saw that he must either submit or resign office. In 1739 
he declared war against Spain. However, he conducted it so slug- 
gishly that the oi^position had good reason for denouncing his 
half-heartedness. 

12. In 1740 new troubles arose on the death of the Emj)eror 
Charles vi. A European coalition was formed to break up the 
Austrian monarchy and to prevent Charles's daughter, Maria 
Theresa, succeeding to her father's inheritance. Again Walpole 



-1746.] GEORGE II. 553 

refused to interfere, and once more there was bitter denunciation 
of his neglect to uphold British interests and treaty obligations. 
By this time the minister's position had become much 
weakened. The opposition grew in strength, and after "^^.^ -^^s- 
the general election of 1741, it commanded a majority cession, 
of the House of Commons. The king, who disliked 1740, and 
his pacific policy, went against him, and early in 1742 ^aloole* 
he was forced to resign. There was talk of impeaching' 1 742. 
him, but the day was past when a triumphant oppo- 
sition could glut its spite by the judicial condemnation of its beaten 
rivals. The king made him earl of Orford, and he still had friends 
in office to save him from all serious attack. He died in 1745. 
With all his faults he had given England peace, both at home and 
abroad, for more than twenty years. 

13. There was no great change of policy at home after Walpole's 
fall. The opposition agreed in nothing but in attacking the common 
enemy, and neither the Tories nor the Boys were suffered _ 
to hold office. The ministry remained purely Whig, teret min- 

and Walpole's chief friends, the Pelhams. retained their istpy, 1742^ 

. . , , ' . 1 744 

offices. Georg'e put into Walpole's post an incompetent 

courtier named Lord Wilmington, on whose death, in 1743, Henry 
PeDiam himself became prime minister. More powerful than 
Wilmington was Lord Carteret (afterwards Earl Granville), who was 
secretary of state. He was the ablest and most attractive states- 
man of his day, and knew more about foreign affairs than any 
other English politician. He was a special favourite of the king, 
because he could talk German, and sympathized with his foreign 
poKcy. But he was irregular, dissipated, unbusinesslike, and con- 
temptuous of routine. The Pelhams gradually under- ^j^g Pelham 
mined his influence, and, despite the favour of the king, ministry, 

. . 1 744-1 7*^4 

he was forced to resign in 1744. His retirement, even 
more than Wilmington's death, set Henry Pelham free to govern 
the country after his own fashion. A thorough disciple of 
Walpole, he ruled England in accordance with Walpole's ideas. 
But he learnt from his master's mistakes the need of conciliating 
every strong interest, and therefore formed what was called 
a Broad Bottom Administration, which took in every section 
of the Whigs, and even found room for one or two Tories. 
Nothing but George's personal dislike kept William Pitt out of 
office, and in 1746 Pelham forced the king to give way and make 
the eloquent orator paymaster of the forces. From this time to 
the death of Pelham in 1754, there was no further ministerial 

u 2 



554 . GEORGE II. [1739- 

crisis. The disciple of Walpole healed the "Whig* schism that 
followed his fall, as effectively as Walpole himself had reimited 
the party after the collapse of the South Sea scheme. 

14. A great European war made it desirable that England 
should Tbe at peace with itself. Since 1739 there had been fighting 

at sea between England and Spain, and since 1743 
the Au^- ° Greorge ii. and Carteret had involved England in the 
tpian sue- War of the Austrian Succession, which raged on the 
^7^4n°?74.R continent from 1740 to 1748. Troubles began with 

the death, in 1740, of the Emperor Charles vi., the 
Archduke Charles of the succession war in Spain. Having no 
sons, Charles had drawn up a document, called the jPragmatic 
Sanction, which declared that the various states which constituted 
the Austrian dominions should never be broken up, and that his 
elder daughter, the Archduchess Maria Theresa, had the right to 
succeed to the whole of them. He had persuaded nearly every 
European power to guarantee the Pragmatic Sanction, but his 
death was followed by a general attempt to partition his territories. 
The lead in this was taken by Frederick 11. (the Great), who had 
become king of Prussia in 1740, and who soon showed a daring but 
unscrupulous statecraft and a matchless insight as a general, which 
were ultimately to win for his little kingdom a permanent position 
among the chief powers of Europe. Frederick laid violent hands 
upon Silesia, and his success encouraged Bavaria and Saxony to 
invade Bohemia. Spain and Sardinia threatened the Austrian 
power in Milan; and behind all these powers was the sinister 
influence of France. Maria Theresa held her own with extreme 
difficulty. Her territories were overrun ; her subjects of doubtful 
loyalty; and she had the mortification of seeing her husband, 
Francis of Lorraine, rejected by the electors, who preferred to 
choose her rival, the elector of Bavaria, as the Emperor Charles vii. 
It was the first time for three hundred years that an emperor had 
been appointed outside the house of Hapsburg. 

15. In 1743 England sent large subsidies to Maria Theresa, and 
George 11., who was eager for fighting, took command of a large 
army of English and Hanoverian troops, which moved into Central 
Germany, so as to threaten Bavaria and turn the Bavarians and 
Battle of their French allies from the invasion of Austria. On 
Dettingen, June 27 George won a battle over the French at 
1743. Dettingen, on the Main, between Aschaffenburg and 
Frankfort. It was the last battle in which an English king 
commanded in person. The consequences of George's victory 



-1 745-] GEORGE II. 555 

were considerable. France and England, who had hitherto fought 
as auxiliaries of the foes and friends of Maria Theresa, declared 
war against each other. The result of this was to shift the centre 
of conflict from Germany to the Netherlands and the ocean. Maria 
Theresa was forced by the EngKsh and Dutch to resign Silesia to 
Prussia. She hated doing this, but had no alternative, as her allies 
would not support her until she had bought off the enemy they 
chiefly feared. At this price she secured the succession to the 
rest of her father's lands, and, on the death of Charles til, even 
Frederick of Prussia voted for her husband as emperor. With the 
accession of Prancis I. to the empire, the attempt to break up the 
Austrian dominions substantially failed. 

16. The struggle about the Austrian succession was soon blended 
with a contest of England with Spain and Prance for maritime and 
colonial supremacy. The land war was now mainly gattle of 
concentrated in the Southern ISTetherlands, out of Fontenoy, 
which the Prench made desperate efforts to drive *''*°' 

the Austrians and Dutch. To assist her allies, England now 
sent to that region a strong force, commanded by William, duke 
of Cumberland, George ii.'s second son. On May 11, 1745, 
Cumberland was beaten in the hard-fought battle of Fontenoy, 
near Tournai. The French then began to capture the great 
barrier fortresses, a task soon made more easy by the withdrawal 
of most of the English troops to suppress rebellion at home. 

17. Jacobitism revived as a result of the breach of the long 
friendship of Prance and Britain. The French thought that a 
good way of diverting the English from defending The Jaeo- 
the Netherlands was to excite a rising in favour of bite revolt 
the Stewarts. The pretender was now getttag an 0^1745. 
old man. but his son Charles Edward, called the Young Pretender 
by his foes and the prince of Wales by his partisans, was twenty- 
five years of age, and was more fitted to stir up enthusiasm 
for iiis cause than his melancholy and incompetent father. 
Tlie French planned an invasion of England, which Charles 
Edward was to accompany. But, in 1744, a terrible storm 
destroyed the fleet destined to take the young pretender to the 
throne of his ancestors, and after that the French neglected 
him. Weary with delay, the gallant prince resolved to take 
his fortunes into his own hands. He collected what money he 
could, hired two ships, and, without the knowledge of either the 
French government or his father, sailed for the Highlands, and 
on Julv 25, 1745, landed with only seven companions near Moidart, 



556 GEORGE II. [1745- 

on the west coast of Inverness-shire. He called upon the clans to 
follow him, but even the Highland chiefs, his loyal and chivabous 
supporters, were aghast at the rashness of his enterprise, and 
advised him to go back to France. But a trifling success over 
two companies of soldiers, sent out to apprehend the invaders, 
stirred up the enthusiasm of the Highlanders. The marq^uis of 
TuUibardine, who had forfeited his duchy of AthoU for his treason 
in 1715, appeared in the Perthshire Highlands, and roused the 
Stewarts of AthoE. to the Jacobite cause. Before long Macdonalds, 
Camerons, and other Jacobite clans mustered by the thousand 
round the prince's standards. General Cope, commander of King 
George's troops in Scotland, managed matters so badly that Charles 
Edward soon found the way to the Lowlands open before him. In 
September he marched into Edinburgh, and proclaimed his father 
as James viii. from the market cross of the capital. Thence he 
marched out against Cope, who had taken up a position at 
Preston Pans, a few miles to the east. On September 21 he 
easily won the battle of Preston Pans. 

18. For two months Charles Edward kept his court at 
Holyrood, and liis personal charm and gallant bearing won him 
The march i^iuch devotion and support. But most Lowland Scots 
to Derby, remained indifferent to the claims of a popish pre- 
^'^^^' tender, supported by a rabble of plundering High- 

landers. Great efforts were made by the government to suppress 
the rising, and Charles saw that if he waited, doing nothing at 
Edinburg'h, the game would soon be up. The wise rashness that 
had led him to land at Moidart now inspired him to attempt an 
invasion of England, though his counsellors denounced the enter- 
prise as madness. Before the end of iN'oveniber the Highlanders 
were again on the march. They captured Carlisle very easily, and 
proceeded without opposition through Cumberland and Lancashire. 
Bitterly to Charles's disappointment, the Tories and Churchmen 
of Northern England showed as iittle zeal for his cause as the 
Whigs and Presbyterians of Southern Scotland. He gained very 
few recruits ; his greatest success was at Manchester, where a force 
of some two hundred men was levied under a Catholic Lancashire 
squire. But he pressed on as far south as Derby, though armies 
far stronger than his own were g'athering on every side, and the 
Highlanders, unaccustomed to prolonged warfare, were growing 
weary of their absence from home and of the discomforts of a 
winter campaign. 

19. On December 6 Charles was, against his better judgment. 



1745- 



GEORGE 11. 



53/ 




Emery Walker sc. 



558 GEORGE IL [1746- 

forced by his advisers to retrace Ms steps. He made Ms way safely 
back to Scotland, only to find tbat in Ms absence most of tlie Low- 
Battles of l^ii*is bad been won back by the Hanoverians. He had 
Falkirk and still to retreat before them back to the Highlands. A 
^^ie^*^^^* last gleam of success shone on Ms cause on January 

17, 1746, when lie inflicted a severe check on General 
Hawley at the 'battle of FalJcirh. Cumberland, recalled from the 
[N^etberlands, now took up the command of the king's troops, and 
Charles fled before Mm beyond the Grrampians. At last, on April 
16, the HigMand army was attacked by Cumberland at Culloden 
Moor, near Inverness. Experience had at last taugbt the soldiers 
bow to meet the fierce rush of the Hig-hland charge. They stood 
with, fixed bayonets, reserving their fire until the enemy was close 
upon them, and then firing a volley, wMch inflicted terrible execu- 
tion. Thrice the gallant clansmen rallied to the charge, but each 
time they were driven back with loss. Then the soldiers charged in 
their turn, and slew many at the bayonet's point. ISo q^uarter was 
given, and the rebels were pumshed so brutally that Cumberland 
won the nickname of the Butcher. G-reat efforts were made to 
capture Charles Edward, and a huge reward offered for Ms 
apprehension. But the poor HigManders kept with remarkable 
loyalty the secret of Ms Mding'-places, and, after many hairbreadth 
escapes, he succeeded in escaping to Erance. Disappointment 
soured his better nature, and he showed a weakness of character 
that could not bear adversity with dignity. He became a confirmed 
drunkard, and, though he lived tiU 1788, lost aU influence. On 
his death, his brother Henry, a Churchman and a cardinal, called 
himself Henry ix., but he was so poor that he was forced to take a 
pension from George iii. Jacobitism had become a mere sentiment 
long before tMs last representative of the ill-fated house of Stewart 
died in 1807. 

20. The suppression of the HigMand revolt was followed by 
the putting down of the old Highland anarchy that had made the 
The subiu- rebellion possible. The clans were disarmed, and for- 
gation of bidden to wear their national dress. Great efforts 
the High- were made to break down the warm attachment felt 

for the clan chieftains. The friends of Charles were 
driven into exile, and the Episcopalian and Catholic clergy cruelly 
persecuted. Hard roads connected the garrisons established to 
keep the clansmen down, and schools were established to spread a 
knowledge of English. Within a generation the whole social 
condition of the HigMands was changed. The Celtic chieftain 



-1748.] GEORGE II. 559 

became like tlie Lowland landlord, and tlie clansman became a dis- 
contented crofter, paying" a huge rent for a little farm that would 
hardly maintain bis family. Some of tbe more daring spirits joined 
the Highland regiments which parliament caused to be raised. 
Later on there was a great emigration to America. The Highlands 
became peaceful and law-abiding, but in the process many of the 
finest features of Gaelic life had been destroyed. 

21. The continental war still went on, and the French had 
taken advantag-e of the withdrawal of the English troops from the 
Austrian Netherlands to conquer the greater part of T^e treaty 
that district, and to threaten the United Provinces of Aachen, 
with invasion. But, as in 1672, the Dutch resolutely ^'*^* 
repulsed the invader. In other fields the French had not been 
successful. They had lost many colonies, and their fleets had been 
defeated by the English and Dutch. An English sailor. Captain 
Anson, plundered the Spaniards in the Pacific, like another Drake, 
and, like Drake, com]^leted his hazardous expedition by circum- 
navigating the world (1740-1744). At last both England and 
France were willing to make peace, and Maria Theresa was forced 
to fall in with their wishes. The war was ended by the Treaty of 
Aachen of 1748, by which England and France mutually restored 
all conquests, and France accepted the Protestant succession in 
England, and agreed to expel the pretender. The Pragmatic 
Sanction was guaranteed, but Maria Theresa, besides the loss of 
Silesia, was forced to give a slice of the Milanese to Sardinia, and 
to yield up Parma as a duchy for PhiHp v.'s younger son Philip. 
She was, therefore, very indignant with the English and Dutch, 
who, she believed, cared little for her interests as long as their own 
were secured. In the peace between England and Spain, the 
question of the " right of search," which had started the war in 
1739, was not so much as mentioned. 

22. The years that succeeded the peace of Aachen were marked 
by great prosperity. Henry Pelham, the prime minister, governed 
the country prudently and, well. Like his master, peuj^m's 
Walpole, he disliked great changes, and he was even domestic 
more prudent than Walpole in conciliating aU. opposi- Ty^^lc^ 
tion. The chief featui-es of his administration were 

useful measures of domestic reform, such as the adoption of the 
New Style of reckoning dates according to the improved Gregorian 
Calendar, so called from Pope Gregory xiii. (1572-1585), in whose 
days it was first devised, and which most continental nations had 
already accepted. There was eleven days', difference of time 



560 GEORGE II. [1754- 

between tlie old and the new calendars. Another important im- 
provement was tlie consolidation, after the jDeace, of the various 
loans which the government had borrowed into a single stock, 
paying the uniform rate of three per cent. These were the three 
'per cent, consols which remained famous for more than a century. 

23. The quiet times continued until Henry Pelham's death in 
1754. " Now," said G-eorge 11., " I shall have no more peace." 
The New- This was true enough, for the declining years of the 
castle old king were marked by a revival of domestic faction 
"^^d^th^^ and foreign war. Dull and commonplace as Henry 
Whig Pelham had seemed, he had shown wonderful tact, 
schism, skill, and dexterity in preserving peace both at home 

and abroad, and on his death there was no one who 
could step into his place. His brother, the duke of ISTewcastle, 
became prime minister, but he was fussy, incompetent, and so 
greedy of power that he would not trust the other ministers. 
ISTewcastle's strongest point was wonderful craft in wirepulling and 
intrigue, but his blunders soon broke up the ministry. He had to 
appoint a leader of the House of Commons in succession to his 
brother, but he was too jealous to give him a free hand, and found 
that the stronger politicians would not hold ofB.ce on the terms that 
he offered. For a time he strove to rule the Commons with the 
help of a dull diplomatist. Sir Thomas Robinson, but the members 
so soon got out of control that he was compelled to get rid of 
Robinson and give his ofBLce to Henry Fox, on terms that made Fox 
a colleague and not a mere subordinate. Fox was a very able man, 
the best debater in the House of Common's, and a skilful party 
manager, but he was selfish, corrupt, and unpopular. He was quite 
content to hold a lucrative office and to pile up a fortune f 01 himself. 

24. Yery different to the position of Fox was that of William 
Pitt, who from 1746 to 1754 had been a subordinate member of the 
William Pelham ministry. On Pelham's death, Pitt soon broke 
Pitt and with N'ewcastle, and once more his eloquent voice was 
the Whig raised in opposition to the government. He was so 

different from the other statesmen of the day that his 
very singularity marked him out as a person apart. He had never 
lost that command of the popular ear which he had won when 
he first thundered against the corruption of Walpole and the 
Hanoverian foreign poUcy of Carteret. His birth excluded him 
from the little circle of great families which divided between each 
other the government of England. His lofty and imperious dis- 
position raised him above the timid place-hunters and self-seeking 



-1760.] GEORGE 12. 561 

joTjljers wlio made politics a race after tlie spoils. He appealed 
from tLe venal politicians in Parliament to the nnrepresented 
masses of the Eng-Ush people, so that, thoug-h distrusted at court 
and feared by place-hunters, he was the one popular hero among; 
the statesmen of the day. His withdrawal from Newcastle's 
ministry weakened it immensely in public opinion. 

25. Newcastle's unstable position would not have mattered if 
peace had continued ; it became important, since England was 
di'ifting- into a fresh war. The earlier stages of this 

found England unprepared and Newcastle incompetent The duke 
to grapple with the situation. Discontent rose high shire's 
out-of-doors, and faction became intense in Parliament, ministry. 
In 1756 Newcastle resigned, and the duke of Devon- 
shire, a great Whig ihagnate who had quarrelled with him, 
became head of a new government, and gave high office to Pitt. 
But the Pitt-Devonshire ministry only lasted until the next year. 
Without Newcastle's command over votes, the ministers were 
imable to carry their measures through parliament. Things 
seemed at a deadlock, when, in 1757, Devonshire and Pitt resigned. 
But it was no time for English statesmen to quarrel when disasters 
were falling thickly upon our colours in every part _, ^... 
of the world. . It was at last found possible to make a Newcastle 
coalition between Pitt and Newcastle, bv which they ministry, 
jointly became sharers of power. This arrangement 
worked well, and outlasted the reign of George 11. Newcastle 
confined himself to intrigue, parliamentary management, and the 
details of administration. Scornfully indifferent to such sordid 
cares, Pitt threw Ms whole soul into the conduct of the war, and 
under his guidance, a struggle that had begun disastrously for 
England soon became one of the most glorious wars that this 
country has ever waged. 

26. The war, called the Seven Years' War, had, like the war of 
the Austrian succession, a twofold origin. One source of it was 
a contest with France for commercial, colonial, and Qpiein of 
naval supremacy ; the other was provoked by the ques- the Seven 
tions of the balance of power in Eui'ope. Though inde- ^^'^^' 
pendent in their origin, the two conflicts soon became 

blended in a single struggle, which raged for seven years over 
America, India, and the ocean, as well as upon the continent of 
Europe. 

27. Ever since the revolution, England had been growing 
steadily richer by foreign trade, and was now become the foremost 



562 GEORGE 12. [1740- 

commercial, colonizing-, and naval power. HoUand, lier rival in 
the seventeenth, centiuy, was beaten in the race and content to be 

her satellite ; but France, her nearest rival, watched 
and colonial ^^^ progress with constant anxiety. In this corn- 
rivalry of mercial competition, even more than in jealousies about 
E^ ff^ancf " European affairs, lay the true cause of the long conflict 

which, save in the days of Walpole, made England and 
France remain almost permanent enemies from 1688 down to the 
battle of Waterloo. India, America, and the ocean were the chief 
fields of this hostility, and circumstances now sharpened the conflict 
in all these directions. 

28. India had been, since the early sixteenth century, a great 
source of attraction to European traders. The English East India 

Company was among the most successful of the associa- 

European tions of foreign merchants whose members acquired 

India under great wealth by the trade with the East. The com- 

the Mogul panv had long had trading stations or factories in 
eniDire x ./ a •-' 

India, of which Fort William (Calcutta), Fort St. 

George (Madras), and Bombay were the most important. Since 
the days of Louis xiv. it had found its chief European competitor 
in the French East India Company, whose principal factory on the 
mainland was at Pondicherri, south of Madras. But the rivalry 
hitherto had been that of men of business competing in the same 
markets. India was ruled by the great Mohammedan Mogul 
Empire, whose emperors at Delhi governed Northern and controlled 
Southern India. The Moguls were strong enough to prevent any 
European society of merchants aspiring to establish its rule over 
any wide tract of India outside their own factories. But in 1707 
Aurangzeb, the last great Mogul emperor, died, and at once the 
Mogul power broke up. A similar state of things occurred 
in India to that which had happened in Europe after the downfall 
of the EiOman empire. The Nawabs, or viceroys of the emperor, 
became practically independent and hereditary princes. The 
Hindus, who had borne with impatience the domination of the 
Mohammedans, began to throw off their yoke and set up indepen- 
dent rdjds and mahdrdjds of their own race and creed. In 
particular, the warlike Marathas, of the regions surrounding Bom- 
bay, established great and powerful states. Yet India was plunged 
into extreme confusion. Any warlike adventurer had the chance 
of making himself a king, though he often found it hard to main- 
tain himself in his precarious sovereignty. 

29. The break-up of the Mogul Empire first gave the companies 



-iJSi-] GEORGE II. 563 

of European traders a cliance of profiting by tlie anarcliy in India 
to aspire to share its sovereignty with the native rulers. The 
first European to see this was a Frenchman. Dupleix, 
governor of Pondicherri, perceived that by setting ^^P^^^x s 
one prince against another, he might take a lead- 
ing part in Indian affairs. He grasped that India was not a 
nation but a continent, and that immense differences in religion, 
language, civilization, and race kept the various peoples of the 
peninsula hopelessly apart. He soon also realized that the more 
warlike of the tractable and intelligent races of India might, if 
officered and disciplined by Europeans, become such good soldiers 
that they could easily defeat the ill-disciplined armies trained after 
the native fashion. Hence it was not impossible with Indian gold 
and Indian arms for a mere handful of Europeans to dominate 
millions of Hindus. In these visions Dupleix saw the whole future 
history of India, though in the long run it was not his country 
that was to demonstrate the practicability of his ambitions. 

30. Already, during the Austrian succession war, Dupleix 
began to carry out his schemes. In 1746 he captured IVIadras, 
and this conquest, though surrendered by the peace „ . , 
of Aachen, increased the reputation of the Erench and Fpance 

throughout India. The years of peace between France ^^ India, 

1740-1755 
and England were no time of peace for India. Dupleix 

took up the cause of one claimant to the great post of nawab, or 
viceroy, of the Karndtik, the region in which both Madras and 
Pondicherri were situated. It was inevitable that the English 
should take up the cause of the other pretender. The English 
at Madras were clerks and merchants, while the French at 
Pondicherri were soldiers and statesmen ; yet among the clerks 
of the English factory a man was found fully equal to cope with 
Dupleix. This was Robert Clive, the son of a poor ^j.^^ ^^^ 
Shropshire squire, who had been sent out to India the siege of 
because his turbulent disposition seemed to unfit him ^£"5?^* 
for most careers at home. CKve had become a soldier 
in the days of Dupleix's conquest of Madras, and now urged that 
the best way to counteract the French schemes was to seize Arcot, 
the capital of the Karndtik. He was entrusted with the task, 
and easily captured the town. Then, in 1751, he stood a siege 
with such determination that in the end Dupleix withda-ew dis- 
comfited before the walls which Clive and his sepoys so gallantly 
defended. The result was the collapse of Dupleix's schemes, 
soon to be followed by his recall in disgrace. Thanks to Clive, the 



564 GEORGE II. [1731- 

factory at Madras controlled the Karnatik, througli its nominee 
the nawab. 

31. A few years later the nawab of Bengal, Sirdj-nd-Danla, 
formed an alliance with the Trench, captnrod Fort William, and 

shut np the little band of Englishmen who held it 
of Plassey ^^ ^ small prison, afterwards called the Black Hole of 
11 hi, and Calcutta, where nearly all died of suffocation in the 
Wande- course of one tropical night. Clive was sent to restore 

the English influence in Bengal, and on June 23, 
1757, utterly defeated the vast army of Siraj-ud-Dauld. at the 
hattle of Plassey. The nawab was dethroned, and an English 
dependent set in his place. Henceforth CKve's genius ruled 
supreme in Bengal as well as in the Karnatik. But before this 
England and France were at open war, and the French sought to 
revive Dupleix's schemes in Southern India. Again they were 
defeated. Colonel Coote won the hattle of Wandewash in 1760, 
which was as decisive for the Karnatik as Plassey for Bengal. In 
1761 he annihilated French influence by the capture of Pondi- 
cherri. Thus the foundations of the British power in India were 
laid. Clive and Coote had learnt the lesson of Dupleix so well 
that they had won for England the great position in the East that 
the Frenchman had hoped to secure for his own land. 

32. A similar strugg-le between France and Engiand for 
supremacy in l^orth America also disturbed the years of nominal 

, peace. After the treaty of Utrecht, which ceded New- 
England in f oundland and Acadie to Engiand, there was a con- 
North tinuous line of English settlements, extending' from 
the mouth of the St. Lawrence to Carolina. Acadie 
was colonized by British settlers, and renamed JSfova Scotia, in 
commemoration of the recent union with Scotland, which had 
made English colonies accessible to Scotsmen also. In 1731 the 
British sphere had been pushed southwards to the frontier of the 
Spanish colony of Florida by the establishment of Georgia, named 
after George 11. This series of Eng-lish colonies was rapidly 
growing in wealth, population, and energy ; but the various 
colonies were very different in climate, population, character, and 
industry, and were not in the habit of co-operating with each other. 
Moreover, they were surrounded on the north and the west by 
lands over which the French had claims, and some of which the 
French were effectively occupying. Canada, which stretched 
from the great lakes down the course of the St. Lawrence, was 
the most important French settlement. Besides this, the French 



-I76i.] GEORGE II. 565 

islands of St. Jolm (Prince Edward's Island) and Cape Breton still 
gave to Breton fishermen a large share of the Newfoundland 
fisheries. More dangerous still was the gradual growth of the 
French colony of Louisiana, which, starting from its capital of 
New Orleans, stretched northwards up the valley of the Missis- 
sippi. Though the French colonies were thinly inhabited and 
badly governed, the population was hardy, adventurous, and skiKul, 
and, as in India, the governors formed wide schemes for extending 
French power. It became French policy to build a line of forts 
from Louisiana up the Ohio valley, and thence northwards to the 
great lakes of Canada. By this means it was hoped to open out 
the whole Mississippi valley to French settlement, and shut in the 
English colonists between the Alleghanies and the Atlantic. 

33. The key to the French system of frontier posts was Fort 
Diiquesne, on the Alleghany river, a tributary of the Ohio. 
Alarmed at the French advance, the colony of Vir- 
ginia fitted out, in 1754, an expedition of the local ouauesne 
militia, at the head of which was Major George Wash- 
ington, a young Virginian planter, who now first had the chance of 
showing his great talents for leadership. Washington attacked 
Fort Duquesne, but failed badly, and was compelled to surrender 
to the French, Next year English and French regulars were 
both sent to take part in the struggle, but for long the tide of war 
flowed in favour of France. 

34. A European war soon complicated the struggle of Eng- 
land and France for India and America. A European coalition 
was formed, primarily against Prussia, but partly 

against England also. A great change in the rela- pe|if coali- 
tions of European states had taken place after the tion against 
treaty of Aachen. Maria Theresa was so disgusted Prussia and 
with England making her give up Silesia to Prussia 1756. 
that she broke away from the traditional alliance of 
Austria and England, and made friends with France, the here- 
ditary enemy. Russia, now ruled by the Empress Elizabeth, a true 
daughter of Peter the Great, joined the alliance, which many 
smaller states, in their jealousy of Prussia, also gladly entered into. 
Prussia was thus forced to struggle for her very existence, but 
Frederick the Great showed a wonderful coolness and energy m 
the face of danger. Up to now George 11. had been very jealous 
of Prussia, but he saw that the interests of Prussia, England, 
and Hanover were the same, and in 1756 made a treaty with 
Frederick which gave Prussia at least one ally. In 1756 what 



566 GEORGE II. [1756- 

is properly called the Seven Years' War broke out, wlien Frede- 
rick II. anticipated attack from liis enemies by beginning- tbe war 
himself. In the same year the tidings of disputes in India and 
America forced England and France into open hostilities. From 
that date the two struggles were combined into a single war. 

35. It was a time when England, divided against itself by 
ministerial dissensions, was quite unready to fight. From the Far 
British East came the news of the Black Hole of Calcutta, 
disasters, while from the Far "West arrived the tidings of disasters 
1756-1757. Q^ ^i^Q Ohio and the St. Lawrence. Things were even 
worse in Europe, where Frederick 11. was holding his own with 
extreme diificulty against overwhelming odds, while the duke of 
Cumberland was defeated by the French, who overran Hanover, and 
compelled him to sign the capitulation of Kloster Zeven. By this 
treaty Hanover was abandoned to the French, so that they were 
left free to attack Frederick. Even at sea England was now beaten. 
Minorca, which had been English since 1708, was attacked by a 
French force, and the English admiral, Byng, son of the victor of 
Cape Passaro, sailed away without daring to fight a battle, and 
abandoned the island. It was expected that the French would 
invade England, and that Austria and E-ussia would wipe out 
Prussia from the map of Europe. A disgraceful panic seized upon 
the English people. The unlucky Byng was made a scapegoat of 
the popular fury. Condemned by a court-martial for neglecting to 
fight, he was shot on the quarter-deck of his flagship (1757). 

36. It was at this crisis that the coalition between Pitt and 
Newcastle ended the struggles of faction in parliament, and gave 
p.. . , , Britain the strong government that it needed. Pitt 
inspirer of himself took the direction of the war, while Anson, the 
victory, circumnavigator, became first lord of the admiralty. 

The great commoner set to work with a sublime self- 
confidence that was fully justified by results. " I am sure," he 
declared, " that I can save the country, and I am sure that no one 
else can." He boasted that he was called to office by the voice of 
the English people. He drew up brilliant schemes, and sought out 
subordinates whom he could inspire with something of his lofty 
spirit. India was too far off for him to be able to do much for it, 
and Plassey had been foug-ht at the moment of his advent to power. 
But he saluted Clive as a " heaven-born g-eneral," and did all that 
he could to encourage him in his career of conquest. He threw to 
the winds his old hatred of Grerman alliances and foreign subsidies. 
The old foe of Hanover struggled manfully to recover from the 



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568 GEORGE IL [1758- 

Frencli George's hereditary dominions. He repudiated tlie capitu- 
lation of Kloster Zeven, and pushed the continental war forward 
with great energy. In 1759 the deliverance of Hanover was 
secured hy a victory at Minden. Pitt's subsidies to Prussia enabled 
Frederick to carry on his heroic struggle. Yet, with all his zeal 
for conquest in Germany, he never forgot that the real mission 
of England was colonial and maritime predominance. "America 
must be conquered in Germany," was his answer to those who were 
alarmed at the immense expense of his German campaigns. He 
showed wonderful skill in selecting the right men to be admirals 
and generals. In 1759 his favourite admiral, Hawke, put an end 
to all fears of invasion by annihilating the French navy in a battle 
in Quiheron Bay, off the south coast of Brittany. This restored to 
Eng-land the command of the sea, and enabled the British fleets to 
conquer French colonies and trading- stations all over the world. 
We have seen how by this time French influence was annihilated 
in India. Of even g-reater moment for the future was the extinction 
of French power in IN'orth America by Wolfe, Amherst, and Howe, 
three generals of Pitt's own choosing. 

37. Even before Eng-land had thrown its energies into the 
strug'g'le, the French in North America had ceased to win victories. 

Amherst conquered Cape Breton and destroyed the 
quest of fortress of Louisburg, which had long dominated the 

Canada, mouth of the St. Lawrence. The English colonists 

united as they had never united before, and drove the 
French from Fort Duquesne, which became an English settle- 
ment, and was renamed Pittsburg by the grateful colonists. This 
destroyed the French ambition of linking' together Louisiana and 
Canada, and opened out the west to English settlement. Canada 
itself was now assailed, and though the first effort to conquer it was 
foiled, when the soul of the expedition seemed to expire on tl\Q 
death of the gallant Howe, Wolfe was sent in 1759 with an expedi- 
tion up the St. Lawrence to effect the conquest of Quebec. ' The 
marquis of Montcalm, the French governor, gathered together all 
the forces of Canada to withstand the English fleet and army. 
Wolfe made Ms way up the difficult navigation of the St. Lawrence 
in safety, and took up a position nearly opposite Quebec. Failing 
to attack the town on the east side, Wolfe moved higher up the river 
and planned an attack on Quebec from the west, where high cliffs, 
overhanging the river valley, were thoug-ht to make the city im- 
pregnable. In the dead of nig-ht the English troops were dropped 
in row-boats down the St. Lawrence to the foot of the steep rocks. 



-1760.] GEORGE II. 569 

Tliese they scaled as best they could, and before morning tlie 
French, found the English, arrayed on the Heights of Abraliam to 
the west of Quebec. The battle tbat ensued proved fatal both to 
Wolfe and to Montcalm, but the French, fought badly, and the 
English won an easy victory. Canada was not yet conquered, but 
Amherst next year completed the successes half achieved by Wolfe. 
Montreal capitulated in 1760, and with its fall Canada became 
English. 

38. In the midst of these wonderful successes George li. died in 
October, 1760. He had lived long enough to see Pitt, whom he 
had once hated, restore his rule over his own electorate, Death of 
save Prussia and the balance of power in Europe, win George II., 
for England the foremost place as a naval, colonial, ' 
and trading nation, and create the modern British Empire as one 
f>f tha greatest sovereignties the world has ever seen. 



CHAPTER III 

GEORGE III. AND THE WAR OF AMERICAN 
INDEPENDENCE (1760-1789) 

Chief Dates : 

1760. Accession of George iii. 

1761. Resignation of Pitt. 
1763. Peace of Paris. 
1765. The Stamp Act. 
1768. The' Wilkes Riots. 
1770. North, Prime Minister. 

1775. Battles of Lexington and Bunker's Hill. 

1777. Capitulation of Saratoga. 

1780. Gordon Riots. 

1781. Capitulation of Yorktown. 

1782. Rodney's victory off Dominica ; Legislative Independence of 

Ireland granted. 

1783. Treaty of Versailles ; Pitt becomes Prime Minister. 
1788. Trial of Warren Hastings. 

1. EnEDERiCK, prince of Wales, having died in 1751, George il. 
was succeeded by Ms grandson, George iii., Frederick's eldest son. 
Character "^^^ ^^^ king, who was twenty-two years old when he 
and policy came to the throne, was slow, serious, good-natured, 
of George and well-meaning. He was ill-educated, obstinate, and 
prejudiced, of narrow intellect and limited outlook. 
But he was hard-working, religious, and the first Hanoverian king 
who live,d a good private life. He had a strong wiU, high courage, 
and a vigorous character. Brought up in the traditions of his 
father's court at Leicester House, he was anxious to take as 
his model Bolinghroke's Patriot King. Boasting that he was 
*' born and bred a Briton," he loyally accepted the legal constitution 
as defined after the revolution of 1688, but waged implacable 
war against the customs of the constitution which, under the 
first two Georges, had undermined the power of the monarch. 
Above all, he considered himself free to choose as his ministers 
whatsoever persons he liked best. He was shrewd enough to see 
that what stood in the way of his exercising this power was tho 
570 • 



1760. J GEORGE III. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 57 1 

ring" of great Whig houses that had governed England diu-ing 
the last two reigns. He perceived, therefore, that his first object 
should be to destroy the Whig connection. With this motive he 
dissociated himself from parties, and denounced party government 
as inevitably tending to the rule of a faction. But lie made what 
allies he could in his war against the Whigs, and often closely 
associated himself with the new Tories of the school of Boling- 
broke. Yet George was no Tory king, as his grandfather and 
great-g-randfather had been Whig kings. He strove to be above 
all parties, and only allied himseK with the Tories because they 
were his most effective helpers in breaking down Whig supre- 
macy. But his chief wish, was to ci*eate a party of liis own, which 
would vote as lie told them, and do his bidding in all things. 
Gradually there grew up a group of politicians known as the 
Icing's friends, whose only principle of politics was to obey George. 
To keep his friends together, George bribed and exercised corrupt 
influence as unscrupulously as Walpole, and cleverly turned to 
the ruin of the Whigs aU the machinery of jobbery and cor- 
ruption which they had built up to consolidate their own power. 
He pursued this policy with extraordinary persistence and courage 
for more than fifty years, never flinching before the storm of hatred 
that assailed bim, and winning the day in the long run. He was 
helped by the respect felt for liis personal character and the purity 
of his aims, and still more by the unpopularity of the great Whig 
houses, their quarrels among themselves, and the corrupt and irre- 
sponsible character of the House of Commons. He would have 
won his way much sooner had he been more intellig*ent and more 
scrupulous in his choice of means to carry out his purpose. But 
when bitter experience taught his slow mind the right way to go to 
work, he was marvellously successful. Before his political career 
was over, he had put an end to the Whig power and restored to 
the king the chief voice of choosing the ministers of the crown. 
At the same time he won greater popularity as he succeeded better. 
2. At first everything was against George. The ministry of 
Pitt and Newcastle absolutely dominated the state and won great 
glory by its naval and military successes. Yet George 
set to work at once to break up the Whig party by and^PUt 
sowing dissension among it, and showed great eager- 
ness to end the war so that he might have more leisure and 
money to carry out his policy at home. So slow was he of compre- 
hension that he could not see any difference between Pitt and 
Newcastle, except that he hated Pitt the more because he was the 



572 GEORGE III. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE [ 1 76 1 - 

most powerful and popular of liis ministers. Yet there was 
much in common between Pitt and tlie new king*, and a wiser 
politician would have made friends with the statesman who agreed 
with him in hating party, and in disliking the great Whig lords, 
and was ever exceedingly deferential to the personal opinion of the 
monarch. Pitt was too great for George to appreciate or under- 
stand. The king preferred to be guided by his mother, Augusta, 
princess of Wales, and by John, earl of Bute, a Scottish nobleman 
of great wealth and some refinement, but narrow-minded, ignorant 
of politics, and too much given to intrigue. 

3. An opportunity soon came for getting rid of Pitt. Don 
Carlos of Naples, the old foe of the English, became Charles iii. of 
Pitt driven Spain in 1759, and in 1761 formed a Family Compact 
from office, by which the Bourbon courts of Prance, Spain, and 
1761. Italy were united against England. This accession 
of Spain to the coalition against England seemed the last chance 
to destroy the wonderful ascendency which Pitt's victories had 
gained for the country. Pitt gained early intelligence of the 
Family Compact, and proposed to fall upon Spain before she was 
ready to fight. But Bute's intrigues had turned his own cabinet 
against him, and even Newcastle refused to follow his lead. Pitt 
haughtily declared that he was accountable to the people who had 
called him to office, and resigned, announcing that he could not 
remain responsible for measures which he was not allowed to guide. 
As soon as he was got rid of, Newcastle was attacked in his turn, 
and driven away from office in 1762. Then Lord Bute became the 
king's chief minister. His ministry was the first of the series of 
weak coalitions by which G-eorge iii., in the early years of his 
reign, sought to destroy the Whig power and make himself the real 
head of the ministry. 

4. Bute tried to make Pitt unpopular by giving him a pension 
and making his wife countess of Chatham. Though eager for 

peace, he was soon forced to justify Pitt's policy by 
The Bute going to war against Spain. The Spaniards failed 
1761-1763, signally to stem the tide of English successes, and 
and the g^Qjj^ g^^ Manila and Havana pass into English hands. 

T)33.C6 Ol 

Paris, 1763. -^ '^^^ time, however, Bute, like Bolingbroke in 1713.. 
was pressing hard for peace, and sacrificing the allies 
of England in his anxiety to score a party triumph. In February, 
1763, he concluded with France the peace of Faris, which gave 
England a great deal, but not nearly so much as she had a right 
to expect. By the treaty France ceded Canada and Cape Breton 



- 1 763. J GEORGE III. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 573 

island to England, but was allowed to keep a sliare of tlie l^ew- 
foimdland fisheries. The Mississippi was fixed as tlie boimdary of 
British North America and Louisiana, an arrangement which so 
spoilt the French game that before long Louisiana was sold to 
Spain. France surrendered Minorca, but Pondicherri and other 
French possessions in India were restored by England, along with 
most of her other conquests, though she kept a few more West 
India islands and African settlements. Florida was ceded by 
Spain, but England returned her Havana and Manila. 

5. Frederick of Prussia was much disgusted at George's 
abandoning him, and remained very hostile to England for the rest 
of his life. But he had gained more by a change of 
sovereign in Russia than he lost by the change of and foreign 
sovereign in England. His enemy, Elizabeth of Russia, Politics, 
died, and power went to a tsar, Peter iii., who had an 
enthusiastic admiration for Frederick. He withdrew from the 
war, and thus enabled Frederick to conclude peace upon terms that 
left him Silesia. For the next few years George iii. kept aloof 
from foreign politics in the hope of concentrating liis efforts on 
restoring his power at home. During this period the chief feature 
of European history was the growth of the northern and eastern 
powers, such as Russia under Catharine 11., Prussia under Frederick, 
and Austria under Maria Theresa. The old jealousy of England 
against France and Spain became soon only a secondary considera- 
tion in European politics, for France was becoming too weak to 
do England much harm. But most foreign states looked with 
jealousy on English trade, and envied England her wonderful 
successes during the Seven Years' War. Before long George iii.'s 
mismanagement gave them a fine opportunity of revenge. 

6. Bute did not long continue in power after the peace. With 
the help of Pitt's sometime rival, Henry Fox, he used all the illicit 
power belonging to the ministry to ruin the friends of jj^g resig- 
the Whigs, and George denied office to any but Tories, nation of 
"king's friends," or Whigs who had quarrelled with ^"^®' ^^^^• 
xsTewcastle and the great Whig connection. But all this was done 
so clumsily that what was an attack upon a greedy faction seemed 
also to be an attack upon popular liberty, and George and Bute 
made themselves more unpopular than ever the Whigs had been. 
Bute soon shrank from the rough work which George had given 
him to do, and resigned office in 1763. 

7. George was annoyed at Bute's deserting him, especially as 
it involved his calling upon at least some of the Whigs to supply 



574 GEORGE III. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE [1763- 

his place. However, a very slig'lit sliuffling of the cards was all 
that was necessary. Since the f aR of Newcastle the Whig party 
had fallen into various separate groups. The chief of these, 
including the partisans of I^ewcastle — ^the great Whig connection, 
as it was called — was G-eorge's special object of dislike. Besides this, 
there was the personal following of Pitt, and various subordinate 

bodies. G-eorge now made prime minister the leader 
ville minis- o^ one of these groups, George Grenville, a clever 
try, 1763- lawyer and good parliamentary leader, but a man of 

little sympathy and insight, and as narrow and pedantic 
as the king. Grenville was Pitt's brother-in-law, but had quarrelled 
with him. He soon strengthened himself by a coalition with 
another separate Whig faction, called the JBloomsbury Gang, a 
name derived from the London house of its leader, the duke of 
Bedford. Grenville's power seemed to be firmly established. But 
within three years his want of tact and judgment had infuriated the 
people, alienated the king, and prepared the way for the revolt of 
the American colonies. 

8. Ever since his accession George iii. and Bute had been 
bitterly denounced in the press. Among the most scurrilous of 
Wilkes and ^^^ attacks were those written by John Wilkes, 
the "North member of parliament for Aylesbury, in a newspaper 
Bpiton." called, in derision of Bute, the North Briton. In 
No. 45 of that newspaper Wilkes gave such offence to the court by 
his criticisms of the king's speech in parliament that Grenville 
resolved to prosecute him. With his arrest, Wilkes, a clever 
Londoner of very bad character, became the hero of the people. 
Excitement ran high when it was found that the government, in 
its eagerness to punish Wilkes, had gone further than the law 
permitted. The law courts declared that Wilkes's arrest was illegal, 
because he had been apprehended on a general warrant — ^that is, 
a document mentioning no persons, but generally authorizing 
the imprisonment of the authors, printers, and publishers of 
the offending number of the newspaper. Wilkes now sued the 
ministers who had arrested him, and was awarded heavy damages 
by a sympathetic London jury. He was soon after attacked for 
publishing a blasphemous and obscene poem, and running away to 
France, was declared an outlaw, and lived abroad for more than 
four years. 

9. Of more importance than the Wilkes episode was the passing 
by G-renville, in 1765, of the Stamp Act, which required that legal 
documents in America should be liable to a stamp duty. Before 



-1766.] GEORGE TIL AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 575 

the disastrous consequences of this act had began to be feit, 
George drove Grenville from office. Though the king agreed 
with Grenville in prosecuting Wilkes and taxing _, _ 
America, there was so much similarity between the Act and the 
pedantic, narrow, and hard dispositions of George and ^^}^ of Gren- 
his minister that they could not long get on well ' 

together. Grenville treated the king with outrageous rudeness, 
and George could not bear to endure him any longer. The difficulty 
of the king was, however, in the choice of Grenville's successor. He 
was not strong enough to rule openly with the help of the " king's 
friends," and he had quarrelled with every other group of politicians 
in turn. Finally, he was unwillingly compelled to restore to office 
the chiefs of the great Whig connection, though, true to his dislike 
of a party ministry, he insisted upon imposing upon them several 
of his own friends as their colleagues. Newcastle was now old 
and feeble, and only held a nominal post in the new government. 
The leadership of the party passed to the marquis of Rockingham, 
a nobleman of high character but of no strong ability. Rocking- 
ham, however, had for his secretary a young Irish man of letters, 
named Edmund Burke, who was soon to prove himself the greatest 
writer and deepest political thinker of his day. Henceforth Burke 
was the brain of the Whig party, though his humble position long 
kept him from winning a foremost place in their counsels, 

10. Rockingham held office from 1765 to 1766. He repealed 
the Stamp Act, and put an end for the time to the Wilkes troubles. 
But he was detested by the king and secretly attacked r^^^ Rock- 
by the " king's friends." The Whig connection was ingham 
not strong enough to hold its own long against the ^Jgl^j^/gg 
ill-will of the court and the jealousy of rival factions. 

Pitt, whose support might have given Rockingham the popular 
backing which he lacked, obstinately held aloof, being resolved to 
have no more dealings with Newcastle and his party, and the Whigs 
themselves disliked the "great commoner" so much that they 
took no pains to induce him to change his decision. Pitt was now 
approached by the court, and his sympathy with some of George's 
views, as well as his dislike of the Wliigs, made him fall without 
much difficulty into the king's plans. Having won over Pitt, 
George abruptly turned Rockingham out of office, and called upon 
Pitt to form a new administration. 

11. The second ministry of Pitt was in strong contrast to his 
previous one. lU health made it impossible for liim to take the 
chief place or endure the fatigue of attendance in the House of 



576 GEORGE III. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE [1766- 

Commons. George accordingly made him earl of Cliatham, and 
gave him the nominal post of lord privy seal. But his acceptance 
Ch t- ^^ ^ peerage made him very unpopular. " The joke 
ham minis- is," wrote a critic, " that he has had a fall upstairs, 
tpy, 1766- and will never be able to stand on his legs again.'* 
Moreover, in harmony with the dislike of party govern- 
ment which he shared with George, Chatham invited men of all 
schools to serve with him. Burke truly described his ministry as 
" such a piece of mosaic, such a tesselated pavement without 
cement, patriots and courtiers, king's friends and republicans, 
"Whigs and Tories, that it was indeed a curious show, but unsafe 
to touch and unsure to stand on." 

12. Chatham formed great schemes for carrying out his ideals. 
He wished to transfer the government of India from the company 

. to the crown. He strove to remedy the evil results 
of the of George's disregard to foreign affairs by building 

Wilkes Tj^p a northern alliance, including Russia and Prussia, 

against the house of Bourbon. He desired to remedy 
the misgovernment of Ireland. But his weak nerves soon forced 
him to withdraw altogether from politics without accomplishing 
anything, and in his absence the "king's friends" controlled 
the ministerial policy. Charles Townshend, chancellor of the 
exchequer, imposed fresh taxes on America, When Y/ilkes came 
back to England, he was thrown into prison by the government, 
and thus once more made a martyr. The freeholders ol Middlesex 
returned him to the House of Commons, but the ministers persuaded 
parliament to defy the electors and annul his election more than 
once. These ill-judged measures involved king and ministers in 
much unpopularity. In 1768 there were dangerous riots in South- 
wark, outside the prison in which Wilkes was shut up. 

13. The ministry was bitterly attacked in the press, notably 
by an anonymous writer named Junius, and by Edmund Burke, 

whose famous pamphlet on the Thoughts of the Cause 
Bupke and ^y ^^^ Present Discontents defended the Whig system 

of party government against both George and Chat- 
ham, Long before discontent reached its climax, Chatham partly 
The Grafton I'escovered his health, and abandoned in disgust 
ministry, colleagues who had used his name to set at naught his 
1768-1770. most cherished principles. On his retirement the duke 
of Grafton kept on the ministry from 1768 to 1770, when he too 
resigned. 

14. George then appointed Lord !N^orth first lord of the treasury. 



-1782.] GEORGE in. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 577 

North's task seemed an impossible one, but a profound calm soon 
foUoif^ed the storms of the early years of G-eorge's reign, and 
North had tact and dexterity enough to retain office xhe North 
for twelve years. He was the first avowed Tory to be ministry, 
chief minister since the days of Queen Anne, but he 1770-1782. 
was still more a "king's friend" than a Tory. He permitted 
George to have the general direction of the policy of the govern- 
ment, so that the king, and not North, was the real prime minister. 
The king's ambition to choose his own ministers was thus at length 
realized. It was to no purpose that Chatham thundered against 
the ministers, and declared th?at the only remedy for the slavish 
dependence of the House of Commons on the king and his agents 
was parliamentary reform. But he still stood aloof from the 
Whigs, and the divisions of the opposition weakened their influence 
out-of-doors. George was much more popular than he had been 
in the early years of his reign, and many of his people were better 
pleased to be ruled by the king than by the Whigs. One good 
resulted from the exclusion of the Whigs from power. They 
became more liberal and less corrupt than in the days of their long 
monopoly of office. Inspired by Burke and led by Charles James 
Fox, son of Chatham's old rival, Henry Fox, they began to purge 
themselves of the old leaven of Walpole and Pelham. But they 
were stiU factious, violent, and unpatriotic, and their narrow out- 
look increased the hold of the king and North on office. Unluckily 
the king misused his power; he showed a blindness and selfish- 
ness at least as great as that of the Whigs. From the king's 
triumph sprang the troubles which .lost England her North 
American colonies, and gave her enemies in Europe their best 
chance to seek revenge for the victories of England during the 
Seven Years' War. 

15. The troubles between Britain and her American colonies 
flowed directly from the expulsion of France from Canada. The 
result of this was that the thirteen colonies no longer origin of 
stood in need of English protection, and some of the the Ameri- 
leading colonists began to look with impatience on the J^^^ revo- 
control which the mother country exercised over them. 
Politically the Americans had no deep grievances; they ruled 
themselves as freely as do the Canadians or the Austi-alians of 
the present day. They had, however, real cause for dissatisfaction 
at the commercial policy of the mother country. By the Navigation 
Act all the foreign trade of the colonies and Europe was to be 
exclusively conducted in English ships, and Britain did what it 



5/8 GEORGE III. AND AMERICAN. INDEPENDENCE [1765- 

could to prevent the growth of mamifactures in America lest their 
competition should do harm to English traders. Things grew 
worse after G-eorge iii.'s accession, for the new king abandoned 
the easy policy of the Whigs, who had left the colonies to them- 
selves, and, guided by George Grenville, insisted upon the strict 
execution of the commercial laws which gave Britain a monopoly 
of American trade. Resistance to this policy first excited general 
discontent among the Americans. Things became worse when, in 
1765, Grenville passed hi« Stamp Act. This was a measure which 
req[uired that all legal documents and formal acts in America 
should be written on stamped paper, the proceeds of the duty going 
to the imperial exchequer, and the tax being imposed by authority 
of the English parliament. GrenvUle had no thought of lessen- 
ing' the liberties of America when he brought in the measure. He 
wished to keep up a permanent army in America, and thought that 
the Americans ought to bear a part of its cost. As each colony 
had a separate government of its own, there was no way of passing 
a law binding upon the whole thirteen, save by bringing* it through 
the parliament at Westminster. This had often been done pre- 
viously without the colonies raising any objection. But circum- 
stances had now changed, and the weak point in Grenville's poKcy 
was that he thought of nothing but the legal aspect of the ques- 
tion. Common sense would have shown him that it was unwise to 
rouse the suspicion of America at a moment when it was already 
irritated about other matters. 

16. The Americans took up a high ground. They declared that 
taxation and representation went together, and as they had no 

share in choosing members for the British parliament, 
hend's ^ ^^^ against their privileges as Englishmen to be 

customs taxed Without their consent. They refused to use the 

the Amepi- stamped paper, and raised such an outcry that, in 1766, 
can resist- the Bockingham ministry repealed the Stamp Act 
?77o' ^^^^ altogether. This did not, however, end the trouble. 

Rockingham passed at the same time a Declaratory 
-4 c^, maintaining that the British parliament had the right to make 
laws binding* on the colonies in all cases whatsoever. Pitt alone 
among prominent .English statesmen objected to the Declaratory 
Act. He maintained that England had no right to tax the colonies 
without their consent ; but by right he meant moral right, which 
was true, and not legal right, which was false. Worse was soon to 
follow. While Pitt, now Lord Chatham, was incapacitated by iUness, 
Charles Townshend, the chancellor of the exchequer of his own 



-1770.] GEORGE III. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE S79 




Fiorida:~Spanish up to 1763 and after 178 3, 

English 1763-1783 
Lifuisiana.-Spanish after 1763^ 
previously French 



EmwyU'ilkcc *^ 



580 GEORGE III. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE [1770- 

ministry, was foolish enough, to irritate the Americans afresh by 
imposing- new duties on glass, colours, paper, and tea imported into 
America. The result was a fresh agitation among the colonies, 
and a general determination on the part of the Americans not to 
pay the new taxes. In 1770 there were riots in Boston, and some 
British soldiers fired upon the mob and shot several of the rioters. 
The colonists denounced this as a bloody massacre, and became 
very bitter against the mother country. 

17. Lord North strove to continue Townshend's policy. Not 
seeing that the real objection to the duties was on the score of 
Lo d North pi'iiicipls, he thought it would make things easier 
and the if he lessened the amount of them, while retaining a 
tea duty, small tax so as to insist upon the right of England to 

levy revenue in America. In 1773 he repealed all 
Townshend's duties except that on tea. This made the Americans 
more angry than ever. What they objected to was not the 
amount of the imposts, which was insignificant, but the principle 
involved in taxation without representation. Accordingly, when a 
fleet of tea-ships sailed into Boston harbour, laden with taxed tea, 
a mob, dressed up as Hed Indians, boarded the vessels, and threw 
their cargo into the water. The government regarded this as 
rebellion, and as the magistrates of Boston declared that they could 
not discover the offenders, it was resolved to punish the whole city 
for the disorderly acts of the rioters. A British act of parliament 
closed the port of Boston to all commerce, and soon afterwards 
another act deprived the great colony of Massachusetts of its 
representative institutions, and put its government in the hands of 
crown of&cials sent out from England. 

18. This last act brought things to a crisis. Delegates from 
twelve of the thirteen colonies met at Philadelphia in order to 

organize a common resistance to the British govern- 
eonciliation ^®^^- ^^ ^^^ ^^^ clear that America meant to resist 

by armed force, if the attempts to control its indepen- 
dence were insisted upon. Chatham and Burke urged upon parlia- 
ment the vital importance of conciliating America, but a deaf- ear 
was turned to their pleading's. At last, in February, 1775, North 
himself made concessions to American opinion. He carried a bill 
by which such colonies as made a grant towards the expenses of 
the Empire should be freed from all imperial taxation. But this 
concession was too small and came too late. Within two months of 
his partial change of front, open war had broken out between the 
colonists and the mother country. 



- 1 776.] GEORGE HI. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 5 8 1 

19. A considerable force of British troops had already been 
despatched to America and was concentrated at Boston. The Mas- 
sachusetts assembly, which refused to disperse when 
parliament decreed its dissolution, called out the local of fhe"^"^ 
militia, and began to collect military stores in order to American 
resist King George's soldiers. One of the chief of the ^^^' 
colonists' magazines was at Concord, and a detachment of British 
troops was sent from Boston to destroy it. Having accomplished 
their mission, the soldiers were making their way back to Boston, 
when, on April 19, 1775, they were attacked at Lexington by a body 
of colonial militia, and forced to retreat with some loss 

before their assailants. This was the beginning of and^Bun^" 
the war of American independency The victorious ker's Hill, 
colonists were soon strong enough to blockade Boston. ^^^^' 
They took up a commanding position on Bunher's Hill, a small 
height overlooking the town. On June 17, General Gage, the 
British commander, made an attack upon their entrenchments. 
After three unsuccessful attempts, Gage managed to capture 
the position. But the Americans fought so weU that the battle of 
Bunker's Hill gave more encouragement to the colonists than to 
King George's troops. 

20. The congress at Philadelphia now assumed the position of 

the supreme authority in America, and levied an army. It 

appointed as its commander-in-chief, George Washing- -,, nedo. 

ton, a Yirg-inian planter, who had taken a leading part ration of 

in the war against the French, and ah-eady held a V^^®P®"1„„ 

dence 1776. 
considerable military reputation. Washington was a 

wise and prudent soldier, cheerful, resourceful, and moderate. He 
reached Massachusetts after the battle of Bunker's HiU, and 
soon inspired the disorderly colonial levies with some of his spirit 
and energy. He at once renewed the blockade of Boston, and 
pressed Gage so hard that, in March, 1776, the British army fled by 
sea to Halifax, leaving the great port of Massachusetts in Wash- 
ington's hands. On July 4, 1776, the congress, now representative 
of all the tliirteen colonies, took the decisive step of renouncing all 
allegiance to King George, It issued on that day the famous 
Declaration of Independence, which claimed that the thirteen 
colonies were free and independent states, free from all j)olitical 
connection with Great Britain. The new federal republic took the 
name of the United States of America. 

21. The War of American Independence was of more political 
than military importance. The armies on both sides were small, 



582 GEORGE III. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE [1776- 

half -hearted, and badly led, and the profound differences felt botli in 
England and in America as to th.e justice and wisdom of tlie war, 

had a paralyzing* effect upon those entrusted with its 
i sties of the conduct. Greorg-e iii. sTiowed plenty of spirit, and did 
American jjj^g ijest to secure victory, hut he was hampered by 

the "Whig-s, who rejoiced at the successes of the 
Americans, and he could not pick out the rig-ht men as generals, 
as Chatham would have done. Washington also had grave diffi- 
culties to encounter. There was a large minority, esiDCciaUy in the 
south, which had no wish to break off the English connection, and 
his soldiers were ill-trained and badly disciplined. But every 
advantage was on the side of the colonists, for the English never 
understood how hard a task lay before them in conquering so vast 
a country. At first, however, the trained British troops proved 
superior in battle to their enemies. Sir William Howe won, in 
August, 1776, the hattle of BrooMyn, the first fight in the open 
field, and drove Washington from 'New York, which then became 
the English headquarters for the rest of the war. But Howe, 
unlike his dead brother, Pitt's favourite, was a poor general. He 
was not active enough to push home his successes, and wasted the 
cold season in winter quarters at New York. In the summer of 
1777 he again took the field, drove the congress from Philadelphia, 
and took possession of that city. Meanwhile Greneral Burgoyne, 
more conspicuous as a man of fashion and a playwright than a 
general, led an expedition from Canada southwards in the hope of 
joining Howe. His army was too feeble for the task it undertook, 
and in October, 1777, Burgoyne was surrounded and forced to 
. surrender with all his troops to the American general, 

lation of Grates, at Saratoga, on the Hudson. This great failure 
Saratoga, more than counterbalanced Howe's victories, especially 

since Howe once more wasted the winter in idleness at 
Philadelphia. Though Washington's army was reduced by disease, 
desertion, and bad weather to a few thousand dispirited men, 
Howe made no attempt to attack it, and so lost the last chance of 
success. 

22. The capitulation of Burgoyne made a greater impression in 
Europe than even in America. Eoreign nations, that had long 
The Euro- en'^ed England the position she had won during the 
pean attack Seven Years' War, thought that she was now involved 
^^r^}}^^' i^ ^ losing struggle, and eagerly took the opportunity 

of revenge. Before long Britain had to face not only 
her revolted colonies, but a coalition of haK Europe against her. 



-1778.1 GEORGE III, AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 583 

France, now ruled by her young king- Louis xyi., led the way to 
the attack, and early in 1778 declared war against England. 
Next year Charles iii. of Spain, true to the Family Compact, fol- 
lowed the French example. In 1780 our old ally Holland also 
joined them. Besides the active enmity of three strong states, 
Britain had to face the passive hostility of several others. In 
the same year, 1780, the northern powers, headed by Catharine 11. 
of Russia and Frederick the Great of Prussia, formed what was 
called the Armed Neutrality, whose object was to prevent British 
warships searching the merchant vessels of neutral countries for 
enemies' goods. 

23. When the sti-uggle with Europe became imminent, many 
EngKshmen's thoughts turned to Chatham. Once before he had 
saved England, and he still seemed the only man who p. .. 
could deal with the situation. Chatham remained a and Amerl- 
conspicuous friend of the Americans. He had resisted can inde- 
American taxation with all his might, and he urged 

that Britain should abandon the attempt to coerce America, and 
throw all her energies into the struggle against her foreign foes. 
He hated, however, the notion that the Empire which he had done 
so much to establish should be rent in twain, and still hoped for 
reunion through the voluntary action of America. The result of 
this policy was that he could not work with the king, who wa^ 
eager to crush American resistance, or with the Whigs, who had 
declared in favour of recognizing American independence. At 
last George was induced to offer him a post in the ministry, but 
he declined to take office unless an entirely new government was 
formed under his leadership. George refused to do this, and in 
truth it was too late for Chatham to be of any help. His health 
had broken down hopelessly, and he was nearing liis end. Anxious 
to dissociate himself from the unpatriotic Whigs, he Death of 
went down to the House of Lords to protest against Chatham, 
"the dismemberment of tliis ancient and most noble 
monarchy." He fell back in a fit when he had finished his speech, 
and died, a few weeks later, in May, 1778. With him expired the 
last faint hope of regaining America. 

24. In the earlier days of the European war England lost the 
command of the sea. It was impossible to prevent a swarm of 
French volunteers flocking over to help the Americans, and difficult 
to defend our scattered colonies and possessions. Yet George stuck 
bravely to his task, and the American war was now prosecuted 
with a vigour that had not been shown in the earlier stages. A 



584 GEORGE III. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE [1780- 

competent British, general was at last found in Lord Cornwallis, 
who conquered Georgia and tlie Carolinas, where the loyal element 

was strong. In 1781 Cornwallis sought to add Yir- 
and the g^inia, the home of many of the American leaders, to 

end of the his conquests. But he had not enough soldiers for so 
^V^^\n^\ great an undertaking, and, after some preliminary sue- 

cesses, was compelled to make his way to Yorktown, a 
seaport, where he hoped to be joined by the English fleet. Unluckily, 
the navy was not there, having been driven into port to refit after 
a disastrous action with the French commander. Admiral de Grasse, 
who soon made common cause with Washington in his attack on 
the British. Masters over both land and sea, the enemy surrounded 
Cornwallis on every side, and on October 17, 1781, forced him to 
surrender with all his men. This second capitulation of a British 
army practically put an end to the war. The Americans re- 
conquered the southern states, and ere long only New York upheld 
the British flag. The independence of the United States was thus 
assured, and a great migration of persecuted loyalists to Canada 
completed and made permanent the fall of British influence, 

25. Great efforts were now made to restore the English supre- 
macy at sea. In the beginning of the struggle our position was 

so insecure that a bold American privateer, named 
Rodney Paul Jones, plundered the British coasts : our com- 

I*GStOPCS 

British merce suffered severely in every part of the world ; 

naval Minorca and Gibraltar were closely besieged; and 

1782^"^^°^' many colonies, including most of the British "West 
India islands, passed into the enemies' hands. After 
the fall of Yorktown, Grasse transferred himseK from the American 
coast to the West Indies, and planned the conquest of Jamaica. 
But in April, 1782, Admiral Rodney won a decisive victory over 
Grasse near Dominica, in which he managed to effect the operation 
of breaking the French line. This saved Jamaica and restored the 
naval preponderance of England. Though Minorca fell, Gibraltar 
was relieved before the end of the year by Admiral Howe, brother 
of the two generals. 

26. The French took advantage of the weakness of England to 
form plans for recovering their influence in India. Haidar AH, 
sultan of Mysore, became their ally, devastated the Karnatik to 
the walls of Madras, and strove to make himself the chief power 
in southern India. At the same time the Maratha confederacy 
took arms against the English, and defeated the Bombay army. A 
great French admiral, the hailli de Suffren, obtained the mastery 



-1 782.] GEORGE HI. AA'D AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 585 

of the Indian Ocean Luckily the governor-general of India at 

the time was Warren Hastings, the greatest man after CKve 

among the founders of British India. He rose to the 

height of the occasion, and, after a fierce struggle, Warren 

succeeded in restoring the supremacy of England, restores 

In 1781 Haidar All was beaten by Sir Eyre Coote, British 

the veteran hero of Wandewash, at Porto Novo; fnindia?^ 

Bombay was saved from the Marathas by troops sent 

by Hastings from Bengal ; Suffren's career of victory was stayed ; 

and with the restoration of the English command over the ocean, 

the worst of the dangers to British India passed away. 

27. Troubles at home complicated the difficulties of England 
abroad, North's ministry was incompetent to conduct so mighty 
a struggle ; the king, though brave, was narrow and 

blind ; and the Whig opposition showed great want of ^.^^^ TtscT 
patriotism. A well-meant attempt of North to help 
the Roman Catholics led to serious " no popery " riots in London 
in 1780, where the mob, led by the fanatical and half -mad Lord 
G-eorge Gordon, burnt Catholic chapels, opened the J)risons, plun- 
dered the town, and fought against the soldiers with such effect 
that the disturbances were only put down after serious loss of life. 

28. The worst of Britain's troubles was in Ireland, where a 
systematic attempt was made to imitate America and cast off 
British ascendency. There the danger came, not from Ireland 
the Catholic Irish, but from the dominant Protestant imitates 
minority. Since the revolution of 1688 the penal America, 
code established by the conquerors had deprived the Catholics of 
all political rights, and had driven the bravest and best of Irishmen 
to seek abroad the career crueUy denied them at home. The mass 
of the Irish Catholics were peasants, reduced to misery by a hard 
land system, and paying an exorbitant rent for the little patch of 
ground which they cultivated. But the Protestants also had their 
grievances. The best posts in Church and state were given to 
Englishmen; the administration was entirely conducted in the 
interests of England ; Irish manufactures were stopped lest they 
should compete with those of Britain ; and the Irish parliament, 
though exclusively a Protestant body» was not allowed to make what 
laws it liked, for Poynings' Act, passed under Henry vii., was stiU 
maintained, which enacted that no law should be even brought 
forward in the Irish parliament untU it had been approved by the 
English privy council. Under George iii. things became worse 
than before. The king saw in the great Protestant landholders a 

X 2 



5 S6 GEORGE III. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE [i 782- 

body not unlike tlie hated Whig connection, and strove to break 
down their power with such energy that the leading men in 
Ireland were bitterly inflamed against him. Accordingly, when 
the American troubles broke out, the Irish Protestant leaders 
showed a strong inclination to imitate the colonists in their 
resistance to England. Chief among them was the eloquent Henry 
Grattan, who obtained a wonderful hold over the Irish parliament. 
Taking advantage of the fear of invasion, and the fact that the 
island had been stripped of regular troops, they enrolled volunteers 

among the Protestants, and soon had an armed force 
latjve inde- ready to carry out their demands. A convention met 
pendence of at Dungannon in imitation of the congress at Phila- 
17^2"*^' delphia. At last, in 1782, a declaration of legislative 

independence was unanimously passed through par- 
liament in which Ireland repudiated the control which England 
had so long exercised over the Irish parliament. And the attack 
on England became the more dangerous when Grrattan passed 
Catholic relief acts, which began to relax the severities of the 
penal code and associate the dumb millions of Irish peasantry with 
the policy devised by their masters. 

29. With all these difficulties to meet, there was no wonder that 
England lost America, and it was a great proof of her vigour and 
The e d "tenacity that she kept her continental enemies in 
Rocking- check, won back the command of the sea, and main- 
ham minis- tained her Indian empire. But the struggle was a 

* severe one, and though the king never lost his courage, 
Lord North, an easy, good-natured, weak man, had long wearied of 
the thankless task of acting as minister, and in March, 1782, 
suddenly resigned office. The king was bitterly incensed with 
North, and looked upon him as a deserter. His anger became even 
more intense when he found that he had no alternative but to give 
office to the hated Whigs. Rockingham became first lord of the 
treasury and Charles Fox secretary of state. But G-eorge was 
strong enough to insist on some of the " king's friends " retaining 
their posts, while he further tempered the Whig preponderance by 
giving the second secretaryship of state to the earl of Shelburne, 
an accomplished and broad-minded man, but distrusted for his bad 
temper and habit of intrigue. Shelburne was now the leader of the 
little band of Chathamites which still kept alive the principles 
of Pitt. 

30. Hockingham's chief business was to get England out of her 
many difficulties. At home he strove to put down the political 



I 



-1783.] GEORGE III. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 587 

corruption wkich the Wliigs had introduced, "but which, the king 
had now cleverly turned against them, by a scheme of what was 
called Economical Reform. Burke, who was only put gurke and 
in inferior office, was entrusted with bringing in this Economical 
plan, but it was made less sweeping than he wished, in K®"^'^^^' 
order to conciliate the king. The Irish disturbances were appeased by 
the surrender of the chief demand of Grattan's party. Poynings' Act 
was repealed, and the legislative independence of the Dublin parlia- 
ment fully recognized. But the greatest work of the new ministers 
was entering upon negotiations for peace both with America and 
with our European enemies. However, before these were ended, 
a violent quarrel between Fox and Shelburne threatened the 
stability of the ministry. Rockingham died soon after, and 
George, who was eager to get rid of the Whigs, took the decisive 
step of putting Shelburne in his place. In July, Fox r^^^ shel- 
and the Whigs went out of office, leaving Shelburne burne 
at the head of a ministry of "king's friends" and ^}^}^^yj'^ 

1V82— 1783 

Chathamites, In this Chatham's second son, William 

Pitt, who had just entered parliament, became chancellor of the 

exchequer at the age of twenty-three. 

31. The first work of Shelburne was the conclusion of peace. 
In November, 1782, he made a provisional treaty with the 
Americans, by which England recognized the inde- jije treaty 
pendence of the United States, and yielded up to them of Ver- 

all her claims on the lands to the west of the Alle- sailles, 
ghanies. There was more delay in settling the terms 
of peace with Prance, Spain, and Holland, mainly because of the 
strong desire of Spain to get back Gibraltar. However, early in 
1783, an agreement was made by which Spain was forced to be 
content with Florida and Minorca. France gained Tobago, 
Senegal, and Goree, but restored to England most of her con- 
quests. Finally, the formal treaty of Versailles was concluded in 
September, 1783. 

32. Before the long negotiations had concluded, Shelburne's 
ministry had fallen. Shelburne himseH was generally disliked^ 
and held office merely through the king's favour and ^j^^ ^^^j._ 
through the disunion of his enemies. There were two tion of Fox 
chief elements in the opposition: the Tories under f^gg^^^*^^' 
North and the Whigs under Fox. Finding that 

singly they were powerless, Fox and North agreed, early in 1783, to 
form a coalition to drive Shelburne from office. Few men were 
prepared for so sudden a change of front. Fox had bitterly 



588 GEORGE III. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE [1783- 

denounced North for many years, and had publicly declared that 
the idea of union with him was " too monstrous to be admitted." 
But though factious hatred of the ministry had too large a share 
in the league between them, both !North and Fox stood at the head 
of parties and as party leaders were afraid of G-eorge's constant 
endeavour to choose whomsoever he would as his ministers. 
Moreover, North had so long been subject as minister to G-eorge's 
caprices, that his conversion to the opposition was the more start- 
ling because of its unexpectedness. The former agent of the 
"king's friends " now declared himself against the whole policy of 
his long ministry. " Government by departments," he told Fox, 
" was not brought in by me. I found it so, and had not vigour to 
end it. The appearance of power is all that a king in this country 
can have." The coalition, on its more respectable side, was an 
effort to save party government from the disciples of G-eorge ill. 
and Chatham. 

33. At first the union of Fox and North carried everything 
before it. In April, 1783, Shelburne was forced to resign, and 
The eoali- George was compelled to accept a ministry that he 
tion minis- bitterly hated. His disgust was the greater since his 
try, 7 . eldest son, George, prince of Wales, now just of age, 
was a strong partisan of the coalition. The prince was dissipated, 
extravagant, and reckless, and was only too glad to have the means 
of annoying his father. In the new government the duke of Port- 
land was the nominal prime minister, but real power was shared by 
the two secretaries of state. Fox and North. George scarcely 
treated his new servants with civility, and set to work to under- 
mine their authority by all means at his command. He gained 
his first success when he forced them to abandon an extravagant 
scheme they brought forward to provide for their ally, the prince of 
Wales. Before the end of 1783, George found a better opening to 
attack them in Fox's India Bill. This was a measure devised by 
Burke to take away from the East India Company all its political 
power. Accident had entrusted a company of merchants with the 
management of a mighty empire. The disorders which 
gjjj had attended this system made such a measure highly 

desirable, but Fox laid himself open to attack when 
he proposed that India should be ruled by seven commissioners 
nominated by parliament. The India company denounced his 
scheme as an infringement of its chartered rights. The king's 
friends were very indignant at his attack on royal prerogative, 
and declared that India, if not ruled by the company, should 



-1789.] GEORGE III. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 589 

be governed, like Britain, by tlie crown. "■ If tliis bill passes," 

declared Lord Thurlow, tbe chief of th.e " king's friends," " the king 

will take the diadem from his own head and put it on the head of 

Mr. Fox." Nevertheless, Fox's India BiU easily got through 

the Commons, and was only stopped in the Lords by an extreme 

amount of pressure from the king. The House of Lords had now 

lost its old Whig majority, through the lavish creation of " king's 

friends " as peers, and rejected the measure. George at once 

turned the coalition out of office. 

34. An extraordinary struggle ensued.- Fqx had boasted that 

no one but a madman could venture to form a ministry. But 

George did not flinch from pursuing his advantage, «r.,,. 

and called upon young William Pitt to undertake the Pitt's 

office of prime minister. Pitt had such difficulties in wiinistpy, 

1783-1801 
getting politicians of position to act with him that he 

could not give a single place of cabinet rank to a member of the 
House of Commons. He was beaten over and over again, and 
called upon to resign or dissolve parliament. But he haughtily 
declared that, as long as he held the king's favour, he would neither 
give up office nor appeal to the constituencies. Gradually popular 
opinion began to flow in his favour. His youth, courage, and his 
father's name all helped him, and, young as he was, he showed 
remarkable dexterity in the conduct of affairs. The king was 
altogether on his side, and was now much more popular than in the 
early years of his reign. Aristocratic feeling was gradually turn- 
ing towards the Tory policy, and the Tories began to desert North 
for George. The narrowness of the Whig oligarchy had made 
it hated, and its unpatriotic action during the late war had 
brought its reputation to a very low pitch. Even thorough- 
going reformers, like Wilkes, preferred Pitt to the coalition. 
Gradually Pitt's position became strengthened, and in March, 1784, 
he felt himself able to risk a general election. The new elections 
gave him and the king a solid majority, and the constituencies, where 
the right of voting was most in the hands of the people, were just 
those which, as a rule, rejected the nominees of Fox and North. 
The king had learnt from the younger Pitt what he would never 
learn from Chatham. He had at last discovered that the right 
way to win power was not to strive to fight his people as well as 
the Whigs, but to put himself at the head of his people against 
the greedy faction that had so long claimed the sole right of 
governing the coujitry. Thus the victory of George and Pitt 
was also the victory of the people. The principles of Chatham 



590 GEORGE HI. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE [17S3- 

won an easy triumpli wken allied with tlie principles of Boling'- 
broke. For seventeen years Pitt remained chief minister, and at 
last only gave np office because lie had ceased to agree with the 
king. 

35. Pitt was five and twenty years of age when he won his 
crowning victory. He was tall, thin, stifE in his manner, weak in 

health, shy and proud, only showing the kinder and 
aSd^poHey brighter sides of his nature to a few intimates. He 
of the had but little of his father's genius, but he possessed 

younger ^^ ^^^j^ ^^^ business capacity which Chatham had 

entirely lacked. He was no orator like Chatham, but 
he was fluent, ready, and impressive as a debater. Though closely 
bound up with the king, he was too able and too hard-working to 
become his dependant as l^orth had done. Though the head of a 
Tory administration, his views were broad and liberal. He had 
inherited many of his father's views, and advocated parliamentary 
reform, the relief of the Catholics, the generous treatment of Ireland, 
the growth of our colonies, trade, and manufactures, and the puri- 
fication of the administration. His fault was that he was too ready 
to content himself with making his views known, without taking 
any vigorous steps to carry them into effect. But there were many 
difficulties in his way, and he had never quite faith enough in his 
principles to make the effort to surmount them. Thus he brought 
forward a Reform Bill, but did not pin his faith to it, dropping 
the measure when he found that the majority of his supporters 
were unwilling to accept it. In this as in other measures he was 
hampered by the obstinacy of the king, the subservience of the 
" king's friends," and the dislike of his Tory followers to alter the 
laws. But though he made few great changes, he breathed a new 
spirit into the administration of the country. He reduced ex- 
penditure and increased efficiency. He got rid of scandals and 
put an end to bribery such as the Whigs and George had previously 
practised. He sought support from the wealthy classes, and was 
a lavish creator of new peers, believing that all very rich men 
ought to sit in the House of Lords, and managing after this 
fashion to encourage the g-rowth of a new Tory aristocracy that 
made it difficult for the Whigs to win back their old position. He 
made finance Ms special care, and devised plans, which were not 
very successful, for paying off the national debt. He believed in 
free trade and in the development of our colonies. He made a 
famous commercial treaty with Prance, which immensely in- 
creased the trade between the two countries. He established the 



-1789.] GEORGE IIL AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 59 1 

government of Canada on lines tkat left the French, to themselves 
and sowed the jB.rst seeds of Canadian freedom. 

36. Pitt put an end to the worst abnses of the government o£ 
India by his India Act of 1784, which, though not so thorough as 
Fox's plan, kept the East India Company in check by pj^t's India 
setting up a new department of the state called the Bill, 1784, 
Board of Control, under a president of cabinet rank, and Warren 
whose duty was to supervise all the political acts of ^^ ^ngs. 
the company, while leaving it free to carry on its commerce as it 
thought proper. The system was a compromise, but it worked 
fairly well, and lasted until the abolition of the company in 1858. 
Its success was largely due to the high character and ability of the 
men selected by king and company to carry out the government of 
India. A bad result of British interference was the enforced 
resignation of Warren Hastings in 1784, as a result of Whig 
attacks, weakly resisted by Pitt. Not content with his faU, the 
factious Whigs brought charges of oppression and extortion against 
him. Pitt was horrified at the tales told against Hastings, and gave 
great offence to the king by supporting the impeachment which 
was now brought against the great governor-general. The accusa- 
tions were urged with much eloquence by Fox, Burke, Sheridan, 
and other Whig leaders, but the majority of them utterly broke 
down. Though Hastings had committed strong and high-handed 
acts, he was in no wise guilty of the foul offences which his enemies 
laid to his charge. The famous trial began in 1788, and after 
languishing for many years, ended in the much- wronged Hastings' 
acquittal. During aU the proceedings, George iii, stoutly upheld 
Hastings' innocence. 

37. Pitt's foreign policy did much to restore for England the 
position which she had lost during the American War. His 
commercial treaty with France made our relations pitfs 
much more easy with our traditional enemy. He won foreign 
back Prussia, which had been opposed to England since P^^^^^y* 
1763, to our alliance, and formed a close league with Prussia, 
HoUand, and some of the northern powers. He was the first 
EngHsh statesman to look with jealousy on the rise of Russia, 
which, under the great Empress Catharine 11., formed designs- to 
destroy the power of Turkey and Sweden, and successfully com- 
pleted the partition of Poland between Russia, Austria and Prussia. 

38. In 1788 Pitt's position was threatened by the serious iUness 
of the king, who lost his reason so completely that he could not 
carry on the government. Fox and the Whigs argued that their 



592 GEORGE III. AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE [1789. 

ally, the Prince of Wales, had a right to become regent. Pitt 
maintained the sounder view that parliament had the absolute 

power of appointing a regent, and proposed to make 
regency "the prince regent by act of parliament. Luckily the 

question, king soon recovered, and his gTatitude for Pitt's action 

made him jnore closely attached to his minister than 
ever. Secure of royal favour, master of both houses of parliament, 
popular with the best of his countrymen, opposed only by a factious 
and discredited opposition, it looked as if Pitt's power might well 
endure as long as he lived. The country was peaceful, prosperous, 
and contented, and rapidly became the chief manufacturing state 
in Europe. All calculations as to the future were, however, rudely 
disturbed by the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. 



CHAPTER IV 

GEORGE III. : THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 
AND THE IRISH UNION (1789-1802) 

Chief Dates : 

1789. Outbreak of the French Revolution. 

1793. England declares war against France. 

1798. Battle of the Nile ; Irish Rebellion. 

1799. Napoleon, First Consul. 

1800. Union with Ireland. 
iSoi. Resignation of Pitt. 
1802. Treaty of Amiens. 

1. No event in history has been more gradually prepared for than 
the French Revolution. Even in the great days of Louis xi\., 
there had been much that was evil in the condition France 
of France. The government was a despotism, but, before the 
though the kings had deprived the clergy and the Revolution, 
nobles of nearly all share in ruling the state, they still remained 
privileged orders whose immunities were very burdensome to the 
mass of the community. Nobles and clergy, for example, paid few 
direct taxes, and the result of this was that the mass of the national 
revenue was raised from those who were least able to contribute it. 
Besides tliis, many of the peasants were still bound, as in the 
Middle Ages, to work on their lords' fields, grind their corn at 
their lords' mills, and mend the highways at their own charges. 
Though most of the peasants were free, and in many cases 
owners of the land they tilled, many were still forced to ^ay all 
sorts of exactions to the nobles. This was all the more felt as the 
nobles, having no political power, did nothing in return for what 
they took from the people. The social exclusiveness of the nobles 
bore exceptionally hardly on the wealthy and intelligent middle 
classes who had acquired fortunes by trade. There were the same 
inequalities in the Church as in the state. A few bishops and 
abbots derived great incomes from their benefices, while most of 
ike work was done by poverty-stricken parish priests, who suffered 
almost as many hardships as the peasants to whom they ministered. 

593 



594 GEORGE III. AND FRENCH REVOLUTION [1789- 

2. Under Louis xiv. the FrencL. despotism liad at least been an 
efficient one. TMngs were far otherwise during the long reign of 
Voltaire Louis xv. (1715-1774), in which period the French 
and monarchy became hopelessly corrupt and discredited. 
Rousseau. Louis xv.'s grandson and successor, Louis xvi., though 
not a bad man, was not intelligent, hard-working, or strong enough 
to set things right. The failures of France during the American 
war showed that she was no longer the leading* state in Europe. 
The decay into which the French state had fallen was the more 
remarkable since France and Frenchmen exercised more influence 
over the ideas and thought of Europe than they had ever done 
before. France had long become the centre for the destructive and 
restless spirit of the eighteenth century. All over Europe men 
eagerly read the vigorous attacks on the existing order of things 
which were written by famous French men of letters. Voltaire 
and his school taught the supremacy of human reason, and 
attacked all authority and everything that could not give some 
plain reason for existing. In particular, they were conspicuous for 
their hostility to the Christian religion, and their influence was so 
widespread in France that the Church had lost almost all its hold 
over men's minds, though it was still strong enough to persecute 
Protestants. An even more powerful influence than Yoltaire was 
Jean Jacques Rousseau, a Genevese settled in France, who preached 
with religious fervour a new political gospel of the rights of man, 
and of liberty, equality, and fraternity. He maintained that all 
government was unlawful that did not depend on the sovereign people. 

3. So widespread was the influence of the French philosophers 
that intelligent sovereigns in other lands, such as the Emperor 

Joseph II. and Catharine 11. of Russia, reformed their 
ofthe^^*^^'^^ states after French models; It was only in France 
States that there was no attempt to put in practice the 

?7RQ^*^* teachings of the French reformers. All change was 

kept off so long that when the movement for reform 
finally made itself felt, it swept everything before it. At last the 
government of Louis xvi. fell into such distress that it could 
only avoid bankruptcy by compelling the privileged orders to bear 
their share in the national burdens. Too timid to do this himself, 
Louis XVI. was compelled to summon the States-General of France, 
the body which had the same origin and early history as our parlia- 
ment, but which had never met since 1614. When the three 
estates of France assembled on May 5, 1789, the French Revolution 
began. 



-1792.] GEORGE III. AND FRENCH REVOLUTION 595 

4. The States-Generaldeclared tliemselves a:Naizo?iaZ J.sse?n&??/, 
and set to work at once to sweep away all tlie old institutions of 
France and build up a new constitution. The leaders 

of the movement were men of liberal views and much constitution 
honest zeal for reform, but they had no practical and its 
knowledg-e how to govern a state, and looked for ^^39^1792 
guidance, not to the lessons of history or experience, 
but to the fine-sounding doctrines of Rousseau. They set up a 
new constitution which established a limited monarchy, and gave 
all Frenchmen equal rights. They estabKshed religious and civil 
freedom, and separated the Church from E-ome, making it a 
department of the state. But the new system worked badly from 
the beginning. As Louis xvi. was always intriguing against it, 
it was natural that the reformers should cut down his power almost 
to nothing. The result of this, however, was to make the govern- 
ment too weak to maintain order, and rule soon passed to the 
Paris mob. Quite early in the movement the people of Paris 
had shown their power by storming and destroying the Bastille, 
the prison in which political offenders were confined. Later on 
the mob perpetrated all sorts of atrocities, and forced the king and 
assembly, which had hitherto sat at Versailles, to go to Paris, 
where they were no longer free agents. By 1793 the 7^6 Reign * 
new constitution had broken down, and was superseded of Teppor, 
by a revolutionary government controlled by the 
extreme faction, called the Jacobins. The king and queen were 
now tried and beheaded, and a republic established. Priests and 
aristocrats were hunted down and put to death. The Chi-istian 
faith was proscribed in favour of the worship of the Supreme Being, 
and afterwards of the Goddess of Reason. Conspii-acies against 
the Revolution were crushed with merciless severity. This was 
the period of the Reign of Terror. 

5. Even before Jacobin ascendency and the Reign of Terror 
had begun, the French Revolution had brought about a general 
war in Europe. The partisans of the old order in jjupopeat 
France had emigrated in large numbers, and besought wap with 
the chief continental sovereigns to fight against the Jh© ^^^olu- 
Revolution, because it threatened the whole existing 

order of society. Church, and state. The emperor and the king of 
Prussia, to whom they chiefly appealed, were slow to move, and had 
no wish for war. They enraged the French, however, by issuiiig 
a declaration that they would use force to restore Louis xvi. to 
power, provided that they could obtain the help of the chief states 



59^ GEORGE III. AND FRENCH REVOLUTION [1792- 

of Europe. The revolutionary leaders in France availed them- 
selves of the indiscretions of the powers to stir up a warlike feeling*. 
They had the faith of zealots in the revolutionary principles, and 
believed that, if they took up arms against the despots of Europe, 
they would be welcomed by the peoples whose kings they fought 
against, and would be able to establish their doctrines every- 
where. Early in 1792 France declared war against Austria and 
Prussia. Thereupon the allies invaded France, but their progress 
was soon checked by the cannonade of Valmy. It was now that 
the Jacobins became supreme, made France a republic, and put 
the king to death. The war soon became a war of opinion and ideas. 
With all their cruelty and fanaticism, the Jacobins were terribly 
efficient. They not only saved the E-evolution in France, but over- 
whelmed the Austrian Netherlands, Savoy, and G-ermany as far 
as the Rhine. Everywhere the soldiers of the Revolution were 
welcomed as liberators, and a few short campaigns extended the 
limits of France to the Hhine and the Alps. 

6. At first England showed g*reat sympathy with the French 
Revolution, Englishmen believed that the French were going to 
p , , set up a constitutional system like that of Eng- 

and the land, and hoped that the similarity of government 

French between the two countries would still further increase 

the good feeling between them which had begun 
with Pitt's commercial treaty. Pitt himself was friendly to 
the new movement, and many of his Whig enemies regarded it 
with unbounded and enthusiastic admiration. Fox, when he heard 
of the capture of the Bastille, wrote, " How much the greatest 
event it is that has happened in the world, and how much the 
best ! " Clubs were formed in the large towns to spread revo- 
lutionary principles. A new ag-itation arose for parliamentary 
reform, and a few extreme men wished to remodel the English 
government after the fashion of the French. Soon the violence 
which marked every stage of the French movement began to 
frighten the more timid. Thoughtful observers perceived that 
the spirit in which the French worked was better calculated to 
upset states than to reform them. At last Edmund Burke, the 
greatest of the Whigs, gave the tone to English public opinion by 
his famous pamphlet, called Reflections on the French Revolution, 
wliich was published in November, 1790. In it he showed the 
great differences between the spirit of the French reformers and 
the leaders of the English Revolution of 1688. While the latter 
had limited themselves to correcting abuses in the old constitution. 



1 794-] GEORGE III. AND FRENCH REVOLUTION 597 

the French had renounced all their past history, and had suddenly 
attempted to alter every institution of the nation. With all his 
wisdom and insight, Burke was violent and one-sided. Before long- 
he broke utterly with Fox, refusing- even to be the private friend 
of a man who retained sympathy with the French. He declared 
that his last dying words would be, " Fly from the French con- 
stitution ! " As the excesses of the revolutionary party developed, 
the great majority of Englishmen followed Burke. A large section 
of the Whig party deserted Fox, and, in 1794, Pitt admitted some 
of the Whigs of Burke's school into his government. Henceforth 
aristocratic influence was dissociated from the Whig policy which 
it had so long supported. The new Tory aristocracy adhered to 
George and Pitt in their resistance to revolutionary ideas. The 
faithful few who still adhered to Fox were powerless in parlia- 
ment and unpopular in the country. Only in some of the great 
towns, especially the new factory towns of the north, was there 
much sympathy with the Revolution. 

7. Pitt was not excitable and emotional like Burke, but he 
gradually came quite round to Burke's way of tliinking. Both at 
home and abroad, fear of the French Revolution pro- ji^e re- 
foundly modified his policy. A groundless fear that action and 
large numbers of Englishmen wished to imitate the ^ * 
French, drove him into a policy of repression which stood in 
striking contrast with his old liberal leanings. He ceased to 
support parliamentary reform, declaring that it was not a time to 
make hazardous experiments. He suspended the Habeas Corjous 
Act ; he put down even lawful agitation with a strong hand ; he 
passed an Alien Act, giving the government power to watch or 
remove suspected foreigners. He put in prison many of the leaders 
of the political clubs which wished to imitate the French, and 
strove in vain to get them convicted of treason. Finally, he passed 
a law which made uttering words against the king's authority to 
be treason, and exciting hatred against the government and con- 
stitution a misdemeanour. 

8. Despite his fear of the Revolution, Pitt long strove to 
maintain peace. When France went to war with 

Austria and Prussia, Burke preached that England ^Jjfg^t^e 
also should wage a sort of crusade against the French, war against 
as enemies of God and man. Pitt had no wish to draw f J^®jjJJf^^°" 
the sword for an idea, but resented the French inter- 1793-1797. 
ference in English affairs, and finally declared himself 
willing to fight the French if they invaded the United Provinces, 



598 GEORGE III. AND FRENCH REVOLUTION [1793- 

wMch were closely allied to England. Early in 1793 the Erench 
solved all difficulties for him by declaring war against the English 
and Dutch alike. Even now Pitt did not rightly estimate the gravity 
of the situation. " It will he a short war," he said, " and certainly 
ended in one or two campaigns." " It will be a long and dangerous 
war," was Burke's truer prophecy. In carrying out the struggle, 
Pitt showed no very great capacity. He joined in the great coali- 
tion which was formed against the Erench, and spent in subsidis- 
ing our allies vast sums which would have been better employed 
in training British soldiers. He did not know where to strike, 
and the generals who carried out his policy were often dull and 
incapable. The result was that the addition of England to the 
enemies of Erance made no difference to the general fortune of 
the war. Nothing could stop the enthusiasm of the Jacobin 
armies. They defeated G-eorge iii.'s second son, Erederick, duke of 
York, a foolish man, and an incompetent general. They conquered 
all Holland, expelled George's cousin, the Stadtholder, and set up 
a revolutionary republic in that country. It was to no purpose 
that Pitt sent expeditions to help revolts that had arisen in Erance 
against the Jacobin government. One of these, sent to Toulon in 
1793, was dislodged from that city by the skill of a young Corsican 
officer of artillery, named ITapoleon Buonaparte, who first showed 
his conspicuous genius in the conduct of that siege. A larger 
force, despatched to Quiberon, in Brittany, in 1795, was equally 
unsuccessful. In 1795 Jacobin supremacy was overthrown in 
Erance, and a more moderate government, called the Directory, 
was set up. Even before this, Prussia, Spain, and other allies of 
England were frightened into peace with the victorious republic, 
and Holland and Spain actually joined the war against England. 
Affairs now became more critical than ever. In 1796 Buonaparte 
received his first independent command as general of the army of 
Italy. In a campaign of unexampled brilliancy and success, he 
drove the Austrians out of the peninsula, forced them to make a 
treaty leaving Italy to the Erench, and arranged for a conference 
to settle the affairs of Germany. England was thus left single- 
handed to carry on the struggle against Erance and her allies. 

9. Every military enterprise directed by Pitt had failed, and 
England had only her gold and her ships to rely upon. Now, how- 
The suspen- ever, the vast sums lavished by Pitt on untrustworthy 
sionofcash allies threw the country into financial difficulties. So 
payments. jTo^Lch gold had been drained from England that many 
merchants, though perfectly solvent, could not meet their debts 



-1798.] GEORGE III. AND FRENCH REVOLUTION 599 

because there was not enough gold and silver in the countiy to pay 
them. This monetary crisis, as it was called, was only set right by 
the Bank of England being authorized by parliament to suspend 
cash payments. For more than twenty years bank-notes were circu- 
lated, though the bank would not exchange them for gold. It 
shows how little the real credit of the country was touched that 
the value of bank-notes as compared with gold declined very 
slightly. 

10. In the early years of the war England had been very 
successful at sea ; but when the French had got the help of the 
Spanish and Dutch fleets, they formed schemes for the j^e revolu- 
invasion of England and Ireland. In 1796 some tionapy war 
French managed to land near Fishguard in South ^^ sea. 
Wales. Though they surrendered the next day to the local militia, 
they proved how easy an invasion was. Next year the enemy 
planned to unite the French and Spanish fleets in the channel, 
with the view to overthrow our naval supremacy, and thus prepare 
the way for an invasion on a large scale. To prevent this, Admiral 
Jervis attacked the Spaniards off Cape St. Vincent on February 
14, 1797. The English fleet was inferior in size, and the battle 
was long doubtful. It was at last won by the action of Commodore 
Nelson, who, on his own responsibility, attacked the Spaniards at 
close quarters and won a decisive victory. Yet within a few months 
the righteous discontent of the sailors led to formidable mutinies of 
the British ships at Spithead and the Nore. The bad management 
which had crippled our armies had extended to the navy. Many of 
the captains were abominable tyraats ; the food was unwholesome 
and bad, the discipline cruel, and the sailors' pay had never been 
altered since the days of Charles 11. After a time, however, both 
fleets went back to their duty, and, under the popular Admiral 
Duncan, beat the Dutch off Camperdown. 

11. The French navy was still unconquered, and fresh schemes 
of invasion were formed after the peace between France and Austria. 
One French army was to land in Ireland, which was on Buonaparte 
the verge of rebellion, while the victorious army of in Egypt, 
Buonaparte was encamped along the channel in the * 

hope of invading England. This latter scheme was probably little 
more than a blind to cover an attack on Egypt, which Napoleon 
had long been meditating. In 1798 the Egyptian expedition took 
place. On his way Buonaparte took Malta from the Knights of St. 
John. He then easily conquered Egypt, which he saw to be the 
key to the East, and the highway to India, where Tipu Sultan, of 



600 GEORGE III. AND FRENCH REVOLUTION [1798- 

Mysore, tlie old enemy of the English, had made an aUiance with 
the French republicans against British ascendency. 

12. Buonaparte's head was filled with aU. sorts of wild schemes. 
He dreamed of conquering Turkey, of destroying the English 
The battle power in India, and finally of taking Europe in the 
of the Nile, rear. Sir Horatio Nelson, the real conqueror at the 
^^^^* battle of St. Yincent, now sought to destroy the fleet 
which had taken Buonaparte to the East. On August 1, 1798, he 
found the French anchored in Aboukir Bay, close in shore, and pro- 
tected by strong batteries. With great daring he managed to 
place part of his fleet between the French and the coast. While 
these vessels attacked the French from within, the remainder of the 
English fleet assailed them from seaward. The battle, which 
began at sunset, raged the whole night, and ended in the complete 
destruction of the French fleet. The hattle of the Nile, as it was 
called, established British supremacy over the Mediterranean, and 
put an end to Buonaparte's visions of Eastern conquest. 

13. The same period saw the destruction of the French designs 
for restoring their influence in India. In 1799 the Marquis 

Wellesley, governor-general of India, sent a force 
w^ 1799^ which besieged and stormed Seringapatam, and Tipu 

died during the struggle. In the same year Buona- 
parte left his troops in Egypt to shift for themselves, and escaped 
to France in a fast cruiser. Troops from India and England now 
poured into Egypt, and Buonaparte's deserted soldiers were 
defeated in the battle of Aboukir. Soon after Egypt was 
evacuated and restored to the Turks. 

14. In 1799, while Buonparte was absent in Egypt, the general 

war had been renewed in Europe. A conference which met to 

_,, „ settle German affairs could not agree, whereupon Pitt 

the Second formed the league called the Second Coalition, of which 

Coalition, Austria, Russia, and England were the chief members. 
1799-1801 . 

In one year's fig'hting France lost nearly all the 

conquests which she had gained during the revolutionary wars, and 

was threatened with invasion. At that moment Buonaparte came 

back on the scene. In 1799 he put an end to the Directory by force 

of arms, and drew up a new constitution, by which he was made 

First Consul with almost unlimited powers, and the sovereignty of 

the people reduced to a sham. The Revolution thus culminated 

in a military despotism, and the greatest of the soldiers of the 

Revolution, like another Caesar or Cromwell, became master of the 

state. The French were now so tired of change that they welcomed 



-i8o2.] GEORGE III. AND FRENCH REVOLUTION 6oi 

the Corsican's accession to power, and Buonaparte's magnificent 
energy and ability won for kim a remarkable series of successes. 
He persuaded the Tsar Paul of Russia to abandon the 
coalition. He crossed the Alps, and crushed the Mareneo 
Austrians at the battle of Marengo, June 14, 1800, a 1800, and 
victory which restored French supremacy in Italy, the treaty 
Despairing of further resistance, Austria made the ville, 1801. 
treaty of Luneville with France, by which it recognized 
all French conquests, including the Netherlands and the left bank 
of the Rhine. 

15. England was then again forced to fight single-handed 
against France. Her danger became more extreme since Paul i., 
the half -mad tsar, manifested a great friendship for 
Buonaparte, and in 1801 stirred up against England Neutraufy 
an Armed Neutrality of the northern powers, con- and the 
spicuous among wliich were Sweden, Denmark, and battle of 
Russia. As in the days of the previous Armed hagen. 
Neutrality of 1780, the northern powers did not 

directly declare war against England, but announced their refusal 
to be bound by the claims of England to search neutral vessels with 
the object of finding French goods. To meet this new foe a fleet 
was sent to the Baltic, though pedantic regard to seniority gave 
the chief command to a commonplace admiral named Parker, under 
whom Nelson was to act as second. The EngHsh attacked the 
Danish fleet and batteries in the hattle of Cope^ihagen. Parker 
grew alarmed when the Danes resisted obstinately, and ordered 
Nelson to retire. Nelson disregarded his superior's commands, 
and went on fighting until he had won the day. Copenhagen was 
now open to the English attack, and the Danes were forced to 
make an armistice. About the same time the Tsar Paul was 
murdered, and his successor, Alexander i., dropped the principle 
that the flag covers the cargo. Thus the Armed Neutrality came 
to an end, and with it Buonaparte's last hope of overthrowing the 
naval supremacy of England. 

16. There was now little left for England and France to fight 

about. Buonaparte was supreme on land, and could do ^j^^ Adding- 

what he liked with the European powers. England, ton minis- 

however, was supreme at sea, and Nelson had frustrated ^^yj }^^^^ 

, 1 • T • 1 ^^^" the 

all the French attacks on our slups, colonies, and treaty of 

commerce. Both countries were exhausted by the long Amiens, 

1802 

struggle, and Buonaparte himself wished for a short 

period of repose during which he could build up Ms despotic power. 



602 GEORGE III. AND IRISH UNION [1782- 

Negotiations were accordingly begun, and their progress was made 
easier by tlie resignation of Pitt, who had offended George iii., and 
gave up ofB.ce in the spring of 1801. IS'early all the able ministers 
went out with their chief, and Addington, Speaker of the House 
of Commons, a duU and incapable man, made up what sort of 
government he could with the rank and file of the Tory party. 
Addington, in his anxiety to end the war, did not trouble himself 
about the balance of power in Europe. In March, 1802, he con- 
cluded peace with the French in the treaty of Amiens. By it 
England abandoned most of the conc[uests she had made from 
France and her allies beyond sea, though Spain gave up Trinidad, 
and HoUand, now called the Batavian republic, surrendered Ceylon. 
Malta, which after N'elson's victory had been taken from the French, 
was to be restored to its former owners, the Knights of St. John. 

17. The wars against the French Revolution were thus, like 
the Revolution itself, at an end, though not before the old state 
^, ., , of society had been shattered and the old political 
that balance of Europe completely overthrown by the First 
weathered Consul of France. England had struggled bravely 

and constantly, though with little intelligence. Under 
Pitt she had weathered the storm of revolutionary action, but had 
paid a heavy price by losing much of her liberty and suffering 
much distress from high prices and heavy war taxes. If she had 
escaped revolution at home, the chief reason was not to be found in 
Pitt's repressive policy, but in the fact that the people of England 
were after all much better off than the people in France, and were 
therefore much less tempted to advocate violent changes than the 
French had been. 

18. During the whole war against the French Revolution, 
Britain's position had been further imperilled by the discontent 

and distress of Ireland. Since 1782 Ireland had 
mfdep possessed a parliament independent of imperial 

Grattan's control. But the Irish parliament, though more 
f-TR^-^^on^' P^"^^^*f^l since Grattan's reforms, remained an 

exclusively Protestant parliament, and represented 
only the Protestant minority. However, it did much better than 
before 1782, and in particular it repealed many of the worst laws 
which had oppressed Roman Catholics since the Revolution of 
1688. Yet even the Protestants were not all satisfied with what 
had been done. Some of them, including Grattan, wished to see 
the Catholic gentry sitting in parliament, and in this Pitt agreed 
with the Irish leader. Others, however, refused to give any 



-1794.] GEORGE III. AND IRISH UNION 603 

poKtical power to the Catholics, seeing* that if it were once 
conceded Ireland would soon fall under their control. The 
CathoKc question soon broke up the unity of the Irish Protestants. 
The eloquence of its orators gave distinction to the Dublin 
parliament, but its members were factious and quarrelsome. No 
attempt was made to deal with the real root of Irish trouble, the 
miserable poverty of the mass of the peasantry. Moreover, the 
government of Ireland was still controlled by the English ministry, 
and the system of bribery and jobbery was still continued in order 
to keep a majority of the Dublin parliament supporters of the 
king's representatives. 

19. The outbreak of the French devolution soon complicated 
the Irish situation. Among the Presbyterians of "Ulster and the 
freethinkers of the great towns revolutionary ideas 

won many supporters, and in 1791 Theobald Wolfe Jp^if^^en *^ 
Tone, a Protestant lawyer, set up a society caUed the and the 
United Irishmen. Its professed object was to join ?®"f^t- 
together Irishmen of all creeds and classes to agitate 
for parliamentary reform and complete Catholic emancipation. 
Its leaders, however, soon looked beyond these aims towards 
asserting the complete independence of Ireland from the English 
connection, and their methods were largely borrowed from those 
of the French Revolution, for which they expressed the warmest 
admiration. In opposition to the United Irishmen, the extreme Pro- 
testants formed clubs, called Orange Lodges, in memory of William 
of Orange. From this they derived their name of Orangemen. 

20. Between the revolutionaries and the bigots stood the 
Catholic party, representing the mass of Irishmen. The Catholics' 
position was a strong one, since Pitt and G-rattan -j-j^^ Relief 
sympathized with them, and the United Irishmen Act of 1798, 
bade heavily for their help. As a rule, however, only tovernment 
the educated Catholics looked to the government of Fitz- 
for support, wliile the ignorant masses fell blindly william, 
into the plans of the United Irishmen. Unluckily, the 
government had no settled policy. Sometimes the liberal instincts 
of Pitt prevailed, as in 1793, when the great Catholic Belief Act ^2.^ 
passed, which gave the Roman Catholics a vote at elections with- 
out the right of being returned members. In 1794 Pitt appointed 
Lord Fitzwilliam, one of the new Whig ministers, lord-lieutenant 
of Ireland, and a further attempt was made to conciliate the 
Catholics. But FitzwiUiam's zeal for purity and reform frightened 
every place-hunter in Ireland, and a loud outcry was raised against 



604 GEORGE HI. AND IRISH UNION [1798- 

liiin. Fitzgibbon, afterwards Lord Clare, the Irish chancellor, 
persuaded G-eorg-e iii. that he would break his coronation oath 
if he permitted the CathoKcs to sit in Parliament. Fitzwilliam 
was recalled ; Grrattan's Reform Bill was rejected ; and the failure 
of the moderates left the way open to the United Irishmen. 

21. Tone and his associates now prepared for revolution. Their 
first idea was to get the French to send a fleet and army to Ireland, 

but the victories of l^elson and Jervis prevented much 
Thepebel- (j^nger of invasion, and forced the United Irishmen 

to fall back upon local resources. In 1798 civil war 
broke out, but, despite the revolutionary aims of the leaders, they 
found their following almost exclusively in the Catholic peasantry, 
and nearly all Protestants united to uphold their ascendency and 
the English connection. The vigour of the G-overnment prevented 
a rising in Ulster, and the prompt arrest of the leaders deprived 
the rising of its natural chiefs. There was, however, a formidable 
struggle in Leinster, where a great army of peasants took the field, 
under the leadership of some of their priests. For some time the 
insurgents held nearly all Wexford, but at last Greneral Lake stormed 
their camp at Vinegar Sill, near Enniscorthy. After this the 
rebel army broke up into small bands, which gradually melted 
away. The revolt was soon put down so completely that when, 
a few months later, a considerable French force managed to land 
in Connaught, very few dared join it, and it was soon forced 
to surrender. Unluckily, the triumphant Protestants avenged 
themselves on the defeated Catholics by atrocities eq^ualiy cruel 
and far more widely spread. The lack of regular troops forced 
the government to make large use of the Protestant yeomanry in 
putting down the rebellion, and most of the worst misdeeds were 
due to their bigotry and spirit of revenge. 

22. Pitt sent Lord Cornwallis, formerly general of the English 
army in America, to Ireland as lord-lieutenant. His task was to 

prevent the Irish of the two factions from attacking 
policy ^ ®^^^ other, and he soon convinced himself that Ireland 

could only be justly ruled by men free from the 
prejudices of either party. He held that the rebellion had proved 
the failure of the rule of the Protestant minority, and that the true 
solution of the difficulty lay in the parliamentary Union of Ireland 
with G-reat Britain. Pitt cordially agreed with him, and sought to 
make the Roman Catholics favourable to this scheme by proposing 
to combine with the Union a plan of complete Catholic emancipation, 
by which Roman Catholics were to be admitted into parliament 



'i8oi.] GEORGE III. AND IRISH UNION 605 

and suffered to hold office under the state. Pitt so far succeeded 
that the chief opposition to his plans came from the Protestants, 
who still controlled the parliament at Dublin. To them the Union 
meant the loss of all their privileges, and, headed by Grattan, they 
bitterly opposed Pitt's proposals. The only way to carry the Act of 
Union through the Irish parliament was by buying off the owners 
of rotten boroughs by heavy compensation, and by lavishing titles, 
pensions, and even direct bribes on all members who were willing to 
sell their votes for a consideration. The corrupt Irish parliament 
was brought round by this policy to pass the measure in 1800. It 
had already been easily got through the parliament at Westminster. 

23. By the Act of Union the separate Irish parliament was 
abolished. Instead of this, four Irish bishops and twenty-eight 
temporal peers were to sit in the House of Lords for 

the United Kingdom, while one hundred members Toqq '^^^^^ 
of the House of Commons, two for each sliire, the 
rest for the boroughs, were henceforth to represent Ireland at 
Westminster. Absolute freedom of trade between Great Britain 
and Ireland was established. The Irish Church and army were 
united to those of England, but the separate law courts, the lord- 
lieutenancy, and a distinct executive government were retained. 

24. Pitt now prepared to fulfil his promises to the Irish Catholics 
by laying before the cabinet a plan for Catholic emancipa- 
tion. One of his colleagues betrayed his intention p^^ji^jpe of 
to the king, and plied the monarch with arguments Catholic 
against it. George had already been convinced by emancipa- 
Fitzgibbon that it was impossible for him to accept resignation 
the policy, and declared, "I shall reckon any man my of Pitt, 
personal enemy who proposes such a measure." There- 
upon Pitt brought his suggestions before George, declaring that he 
must resign if they were not accepted. George vainly endeavoured 
to persuade him to say nothing more about them. Pitt's answer 
to this was to offer to resign. This event was delayed by George 
being driven by the excitement produced by the crisis into another 
fit of insanity. On his speedy recovery, Pitt, out of pure com- 
passion, informed the bewildered king that he would not trouble 
him with further advice on the Catholic question. England was 
still engaged in her Kfe-and-death struggle against Napoleon, and 
Pitt saw that it was even more important to keep George in health 
and courage than to set free the Catholics. Then, in March, 1801, 
he laid down the seals of office. His resignation was another 
triumph of the indomitable wiU of George in. It weakened the 



6o6 



GEORGE III. AND IRISH UNION 



[1801. 



administration at a period of difficulty, and soon destroyed the 
hopes that had "been formed as to the results of the Irish Union. 
This measure, unaccompanied by emancipation, resulted in effect 
in a prolongation of Protestant ascendency in Ireland, and a con- 
tinuance of the legitimate grievances of the Catholics. Inevitably 
the Catholics resented the trickery by which their support of the 
measure had been won. They grew more disgusted with the Union 
than the Protestants had ever been, and were henceforward its 
chief enemies. The result was that the one-sided Union failed 
either to conciliate Ireland or promote its prosperity. The blame 
of this was, however, due, not to Pitt, but to G-eorge iii. 



Africa ? ^ 



X;^ Scipion 



V^ 



X^ Intrepide 



Sirius 






Ajax^ 
Orion ^ 

Agamemnon 

Prince ?^ 

Swiftsure 
^ ^►-Polyphemus 
'ft, Dreadnought 



Euryalus ^ 1 

^^^ Victory 
Conqueror,^ ^^Temeraice 
^^ Neptune 



V* \\F<yrmidable 
y^ -x^Duguay Trouin 

^ \Rayo 

\ \^Mont B/ano 
Sao Francisco de Asis^ p 

^Heros %Agustin 

^ t\ ^ . - 
' ^ ^ ^Santissima 

/ Y Trinidad 

' BucentaureX^ 
' ^Redoutable 

X ^ 

San Justo 



Britannia 



Leviathan 






Neptune^ 
San 



V 



Royal SovereignQ^ 



Achille 



^Belleisle 
^Mars 
^Tonnant 
^ ^Bellerophon 
Colossus 



'.CO^ 



Indomotable 
Santa Ana 



Revenge? 
alternative position 



BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR 
2ist. October 1805 

Position at Noon 

(From the Admiralty Committee's Report, 1913) 

^ British Ships 
O French Ships 
t!>Spanish Ships 



(j Fougueurx 
Pluton 
^ ^Monarca 

^ UAIgesiras 

A Bahama 

§ Montanes 
^ () Aigle 

, () Swiftsure 

ArgonauteQ ^Argonauta 

^ ^San lldefonso 
^ ^Achille 

'^Principe de Asturias 
fj Berivicli 
0San Juan Nepomuceno 



Emery Walker Ltd. sc. 



CHAPTER V 
GEORGE III. AND NAPOLEON 1,1802-1820) 

Chief Dates: 

1803. Renewal of war with France ; battle of Assaye. 

1804. Pitt's second ministry-. 

1805. Battles of Trafalgar and Austerlitz. 

1806. Death of Pitt and Fox. 

1807. Treaty of Tilsit ; beginning of the long Ton- rule. 

1808. Battle of Vimiero ; beginning of the Peninsular War. 

1809. Battles of Wagram and Talavera. 

1810. Battle of Busaco. 

181 1. Regency established ; battles of Fuentes de Onoro and Albuera. 

1812. Battle of Salamanca ; failure of Napoleon's Russian campaign ; 

war with America. 

1813. Battles of Leipzig and Vitoria. 

1814. First fall of Napoleon. 

1815. Battle of Waterloo and final fall of Napoleon ; Peace of Paris and 

Congress of Vienna. 

1819. The Manchester massacre. 

1820. Death of George iii. 

1, The treaty of Amiens was little more than a truce. Tlioug-li 
tke English, looked forward to a long period of repose, a permanent 
peace was no part of the designs of the First Consul of 
France. All that Buonaparte wanted was a short ©fthe 
breathing-time while he built up his great fabric of treaty of 
despotism. But he soon fancied Himself so strong that ^ ^2^^' 
he became indifferent as to England's action. He had 
now made his peace with the pope by the Concordat, wliich restored 
the Roman Catholic Church in France, and enabled Buonaparte to 
pose as the protector of religion, which had been almost overthrown 
by the Jacobins. Already he began to make fresh aggressions on 
the continent. He seized Piedmont and Parma, and sent his troops 
to occupy Switzerland. No continental power ventured to oppose 
him, for Alexander of Russia was his ally, and Germany was 
plunged into confusion. The treaty of Luneville had necessitated 
the reconstitution of the whole of G-ermany, and Austria and 
Prussia were angrily quarrelling as to their share of the plunder. 

607 



6o8 , GEORGE III. AND NAPOLEON [1803- 

Secure on the continent, the First Consul took up a high line 
"with England. He had not forgiven her for frustrating his plans 
in Egypt, and he was shrewd enough to see that his European 
position could not he secure so long as she retained the command 
of the sea. He was anxious to recover the lost French colonies, to 
increase the maritime commerce of France, and to make its navy 
the first in the world. England, and England only, stood in the 
way of the accomplishment of these objects, and Buonaparte 
thought that his commanding position made it desirable for him 
to attack her as soon as possible, since there was little immediate 
prospect of her winning any continental allies. Accordingly, he 
took every opportunity of picking a quarrel with England. He 
complained that the royalist emigrants settled in England were 
libelling him in a newspaper which they published in London. He 
demanded the expulsion of the Bourbon princes, and angrily 
resented the refusal of the English to carry out the treaty of 
Amiens by the evacuation of Malta. He took up so offensive an 
attitude that even the weak government of Addington felt that it 
had no alternative but to renew hostilities. In May, 1803, Britain 
declared war against France, less than fourteen months after the 
conclusion of the treaty of peace. 

2. The war lasted without a break from 1803 to 1814. It was 
fought for very different objects to those which Eng-land had 
The Napo- fought for from 1793 to 1802. It was waged to main- 
leonie War, tain the balance of power and the liberties of Europe, 
which were threatened by the despot who had already 
put down the freedom of his adopted country. During this long 
period there were many changes on the continent. The never- 
ceasing aggressions of Napoleon compelled the continental powers 
on several occasions to draw the sword against him. In no case 
could they resist him for any length of time. His military genius 
easily enabled him to overthrow their armies, and their subjects were 
indifferent to their defeat, even welcoming the French conquerors 
as the apostles of the ideas of the revolution. With England, 
however, Buonaparte had to fight, not only against the government, 
but against the whole people. It was England which first taught 
the conqueror of so many governments how hard it was to conquer 
a nation. Grradually, as his designs became clearer, England 
succeeded in rousing the continent to defeat his designs of universal 
monarchy. It was natural that !N"apoleon should manifest an 
extraordinary hatred against the one state which successfully 
blocked his march towards the monarchy of the world. 



-i8o5.] GEORGE III. AND NAPOLEON 609 

3. Buonaparte wished to end tlie war rapidly by pouring an 
army of overwhelming- force into England. He collected all 
his available troops along the north coast of France, ^ . , 
and filled every harbour from Antwerp to Le Havre rebellion, 
with a fleet of flat-bottomed boats, with which he ^^®3. 
hoped to carry what he called the army of England over the 
Channel. He took up his headquarters at Boulogne, and waited 
for an opportunity of evading the English fleet and invading the 
country. At the same time he sought to distract English attention 
by stirring up trouble within her own empire. The attack began 
in Ireland, where in July, 1803, Robert Emmet, brother of one of 
the rebel leaders of 1798, was incited by Buonaparte to attempt a 
rising in Dublin, hoping that the disappointment felt among the 
Irish Catholics at the failure of Catholic emancipation would 
make the disturbances general. Emmet's attempt failed. AU that 
he could do was to provoke a riot in DubHn, dui-ing which the mob 
murdered the chief justice of Ireland. The distui-bances were put 
down, and Emmet was taken and hanged. 

4. Buonaparte was more successful in India, where he stirred 
up the warlike Marathas to resist the English power. The Marquis 
WeUesley, who had already frustrated a similar alliance 

between revolutionary France and Tipii of Mysore, Wellesley 
was still governor- general, and took prompt measures British 
to defeat the Marathas clans. He despatched two supremacy 
armies against the chiefs of the Maratha states. One 1798-1805 
of these, which operated in the south, was commanded 
by the governor-general's younger brother. Sir Arthur Wellesley, 
who had just shown, in a subordinate position during the Mysore 
war, his great qualities as a general. In 1803 Wellesley won two 
brilliant victories, at Assaye and Argaum, over the southern army 
of the Marathas ; while General Lake, who operated in the north, 
conquered Delhi, and released the descendant of the Mahommedan 
emperors from his dependence on the Maratha confederacy. The 
Maratha lords were forced to make peace, to dismiss the French 
officers sent to train their soldiers, and to surrender large portions 
of their territory. The governor-general concluded with them, the 
puppet emperor of Delhi, and other Indian chieftains, subsidiary 
treaties, which bound them to formal vassalage to the jj^g ^^^i- 
East India Company. By liis enormous annexations sidiary 
of territory, the Marquis WeUesley estabHshed for the treaties, 
first time the direct rule of Britain over vast tracts of Indian 
territory. By his system of subsidiary treaties he extended the 



6 TO GEORGE III, AND NAPOLEON [1804- 

British power over the most formidable of tlie native states. After 
Warren Hastings, lie is the second founder of our Indian empire. 
Like Hastings, he found his services little appreciated. The Whigs 
denounced his subsidiary system, and the directors of the company 
disliked to have so much responsibility and cost forced upon them. 
He was recalled in 1805, but nothing could destroy the fruits of 
his triumphs, and, all against its will, the company was forced by 
irresistible facts to rule half India and be suzerain of the rest. 

5. In England the Addington ministry was CLuite incompetent 
to meet the national danger involved in ]!^apoleon's threats of 
p., . , invasion. A g-reat cry arose for the return of Pitt to 
second power, and not even the king's friendship could keep 
ministry, Addington long in office. In May, 1804, he had to 

give way to Pitt, who thought that, in the face of the 
enemy, his duty was to save the state rather than bewilder the half - 
mad king with advice on the Catholic question. Pitt thought that 
at this period of national peril a broad ministry should be formed, 
in which all parties could unite for the defence of the country. 
His plan was, however, frustrated, because the king absolutely 
refused to give office to Fox, the Whig leader. Pitt made no 
heroic attempt to struggle against the king's will. He gave up 
Fox as he had given up the Catholics, and built up a ministry out 
of his Tory followers. Before long, Addington himself joined the 
government, and was made Lord Sidmouth. Pox almost justified the 
king's action by his factious opposition to the g'overnment, and by his 
fatuous belief in the benevolence and pacific wishes of Buonaparte. 

6. Pitt restored confidence by his zeal in meeting* the threatened 
invasion. As soon as the war began, a g-reat volunteer movement 
The volun- ^^^ broken out, and more than three hundred thousand 
teep move- Englishmen joined in it. Pitt now encouraged the 
ment. volunteers, and strengthened the army and navy. 
iNearly every step he took was bitterly opposed by Fox and his 
followers. 

7. In May, 1804, Buonaparte declared himself Napoleon i., 
emperor of the French. For more than a year his " army of 

England " had waited with no results on the coast of 
of England *^^ Channel, and the invasion seemed further off 
and the than ever. It became clear that Ms original scheme 

ofth^™^°^ of evading the English fleet was impracticable. 
1804-1805.' The English command of the seas . was so com- 
plete that there was no chance of the French sKpping 
over the Channel. G-raduaUy l^apoleon realized that the only way 



-i8o5.] GEORGE III. AND NAPOLEON 6ll 

of conquering" England was to defeat the Englisli fleet. As the 
French alone were not strong enough to do this, Napoleon forced his 
dependent, Charles iv, of Spain, to build a great navy and add it to 
that of France. Pitt got early intelligence of the Spanish scheme, 
and declared war against Charles iy. in December, 1804. Immense 
efforts were now made to collect all the Spanish and French 
men-of-war in the Channel in order to overpower the English by 
their numbers. It was, however, very difficult to effect this, as the 
chief French fleets were in port at Brest and Toulon, blockaded by 
superior English squadrons, and the Spaniards were mostly at 
Cadiz. A first step towards the concentration of the enemy's fleet 
was, however, accomplished when the Toulon fleet, under Admiral 
Villeneuve, took advantage of a storm to escape from that port, 
joined the Spaniards at Cadiz, and then sailed with them to the 
West Indies. Nelson, who commanded the British Mediterranean 
fleet, pursued Yilleneuve to the West Indies. But when he got 
there, Yilleneuve had already sailed back to Europe, and strove to 
liberate the French squadrons in the Atlantic ports. He was 
frustrated in this by Admiral Calder, who engaged with him in a 
hard-fought, though indecisive, battle off Ca^e Finisterre. Not 
long after, Yilleneuve was again at Cadiz, and conscious that his 
plans had failed. 

8. In October, 1805, Nelson again sailed to Spain, and Napoleon 
ordered Yilleneuve to take the sea against him. On October 21 
the fleets met off Cape Trafalgar. Nelson had twenty- Battle of 
seven ships of the line to meet the thirty-three of the Trafalgar, 
French and Spaniards. Yilleneuve arranged his ships 

in a single line, which gradually drifted into the form of a crescent. 
Nelson divided his into two columns, one commanded by himself 
and the other by Collingwood. He hoped to attack with both at 
once, and so break the enemy's line in two places (see chart on 
page 606). Both divisions succeeded in this manoeuvre, and a deadly 
struggle between ships almost interlocking each other followed. 
Nelson's flagship, the Victory, which led the weather line of attack, 
suffered terribly, and the admiral himself was struck down by a 
musket-ball from a neighbouring ship. He lived long enough to 
know that a decisive victory had been obtained. Henceforth the 
command of the seas remained until the end of the war absolutely 
in English hands. For nine years no enemy's fleet ventured to 
leave port against the English ; all fears of invasion were at an 
end, and Britain could safely defy the master of Europe. 

9. The battle of Trafalgar was the more remarkable since it 



6l2 GEORGE III. AND NAPOLEON [1805- 

came at tlie moment of Napoleon's completest triiunph. on land. 
Early in 1805 Pitt's diplomacy had trinmpked over the jealousies 

of the powers, and a Third Coalition of England, 
Coaimoif Russia, Austria, Naples, and Sweden was formed 
and its against France. The "army of England" had now 

failure, something better to do than wait idly in its camp at 

Boulogne for the success of the French fleet. With 
admirable promptitude Napoleon hurried his troops from the 
Channel to southern G-ermany, hoping to attack Austria before she 
was ready. On December 2, 1805, he won a decisive victory on the 
snow-covered plain of Austerlitz, and forced Austria to accept the 
humiliating peace of Presshurg, which gave him the supremacy 
over both Italy and Germany. Napoleon then set up a ring of 
dependent kingdoms round his mighty empire. He already ruled 
northern and central Italy as king of Italy, and he now put his 
brother Joseph into the kingdom of Naples, from which he expelled 
the Bourbons, Other brothers of Napoleon became kings of 
Holland and Westphalia, the nucleus of the latter kingdom being 
George iii.'s Hanoverian dominions. The smaller German states 
became Napoleon's abject dependents, and were combined in the 
Confederation of the Rhine, of which he was the protector. It 
was now that the ruler of Austria gave up his vain title of lioman 
emperor, and called himself Emperor of Austria. 

10. The collapse of the coalition was a fatal blow to Pitt. 
Trafalgar was very little consolation for Austerlitz and Pressburg. 
Thoug'h England was saved, the continent was at 
Napoleon's feet, and the balance of power utterly p^^^ ^gQg 
destroyed. On January 23, 1806, the great minister 

died, exclaiming with his dying breath, " Oh, my country, how 
I leave my country ! " It was impossible to keep his cabinet 
together without him, and the plan of a broad ministry, which he 
had previously advocated, was at last realized after his death. 
George iii. was forced to accept Fox as secretary of state, while 
Pitt's cousin, Lord Grenville, who had long been -m- • t y 
Fox's ally, became first lord of the treasury. Whigs, ©fall the 
Tories, and " king's friends " all had their share in the '^^^^^^^^(.y 
new government, for, though Pitt's chief followers 
abandoned office, room was found even for Lord Sidmouth. This 
comprehensive cabinet was called the Ministry of all the Talents. 

11. Fox had professed as much admiration for Napoleon as 
he had formerly showed for the French Revolution. He had 
denounced the war as unnecessary, and now attempted to negotiate 



-i8i2,] GEORGE III. AND NAPOLEON 613 

for peace witli the French emperor. Bitter experience soon taught 

him that Pitt had been right and he had been wrong. !N^apoleon 

refused to make peace on reasonable terms, and even 

Fox saw that the war must be continued. However, pox 1806 

on September 13, Fox died, worn out, like Pitt, 

and humiliated by failure. His last measure was the congenial 

task of pledging parKament to put an end to the brutal and 

degrading slave trade. The act abolishing the slave trade was 

passed in 1807, after his death. 

12. In 1807 the Grrenville ministry resigned on the Catholic 

question. The Union had joined together the English and Irish 

armies, and in the latter the Irish Catholics could hold -,, „ „ ._ 

, The resig- 

rank up to that of colonel. Grenville now proposed nation of 
that English Catholic officers should have the same ^rf?^^^^®* 
rights which already belonged to Irish Catholic officers. 
This at once aroused George's undying prejudices. He accused 
the ministers of indirectly aiming at the removal of the Catholic 
disabilities, and frightened them into dropping their scheme. The 
ministers, however, drew up a minute in which they declared in 
general terms their right to give the king advice on any matter. 
"I must be the Protestant king of a Protestant country, or no 
king," said George, and demanded the withdrawal of the minute. 
On the ministers' refusal, he turned them out of office. 

13. This was the last and the greatest of George's triumphs. 
Henceforth he kept the Wliigs out of power, and to the end of his 
reign the Tories alone held office. The divisions of x^e long 
the Tories erave the extreme section the preponderance Tory rule, 
in power. From 1807 to 1809 the nominal prime ^""' ^^'^"• 
minister was the duke of Portland, who had previously been prime 
minister of the coalition ministry of 1783. Under the duke, Pitt's 
chief disciples, Canning and Castlereagh, held important posts. 
In 1809, however. Canning and Castlereagh quarrelled and Port- 
land died. A reactionary ministry, in which the Pittites sat 
without controlling it, was now formed under Spencer Perceval. 
He retained office until 1812, when he was murdered by a madman 
in the lobby of the House of Commons. He was succeeded by 
Lord Liverpool, who remained at the head of affairs till 1827. 
Before this last change, George iii. became permanently insane, 
and the prince of Wales was appointed Jinnee Regent early in 
1811. The regent had hitherto professed great friendship for 
the Whigs, and George iii. had raised the royal power to such a 
height that the new ruler might easily have recalled his allies to 



6l4 GEORGE III. AND NAPOLEON [1806- 

office. Tile regent was, however, a weak and selfish man, and had 
supported the Whigs to annoy his father rather than because he 
agreed with them. As ruler he took up all his father's prejudices, 
including even G-eorge iii.'s strong views about Catholic emanci- 
pation. The result of this was that the insanity of the king made 
no difference in the administration of the kingdom. 

14. The war against Napoleon absorbed the whole energy of 
the nation. After Fox's abortive attempt at peace, active opera- 
tions were renewed, but the Grenville ministry frittered 

f th^°" away its resources in petty expeditions, which, even 

when successful, had no effect on the general course of 
Affairs. The Tory governments which succeeded Grenville showed 
more perseverance but not more intelligence. They knew nothing 
of continental feeling, continued the wasteful policy of small expe- 
ditions, showed no insight in the choice of generals, and manifested 
jealousy against the able men who served the country in the field. 
Their only merit was that they kept fighting away against ISTapo- 
leon in a sort of bull-dog fashion, and triumphed in the end by 
sheer pertinacity. 

15. ISTapoleon carried everything before him on the continent. 
After Austerlitz, Prussia went to war against him, but on 
The treaty October 14, 1806, the Prussian army was crushed at 
of Tilsit, Jena, and ISTapoleon entered BerKn in triumph. 

Russia alone now remained in the field, and a fierce 
and bloody campaign was fought between iNTapoleon and Russia, 
until the genius of the Corsican once more triumphed in the battle 
of Friedland. In 1807 the Tsar Alexander abandoned his allies 
and made the treaty of Tilsit with [Napoleon, by which they 
divided Europe between them. Napoleon strengthened his ascend- 
ency over the west by reducing Prussia to a petty state, and 
Alexander took what lands he could get from the Swedes and the 
Turks. It was now that Finland was filched from Sweden and 
annexed to Russia. Prom 1807 to 1812 the alliance of Napoleon 
and Alexander continued. 

16. After these fresh triumphs, Napoleon renewed his attempts 
ag-ainst England. His plan was now to ruin the English by 
The Con- cutting off their trade with the continent. With 
tinental this object he devised what was called the Continental 
System. System, bj which he declared all the British Islands in 
a state of blockade, forbade any of his dependents or allies to trade 
with them, confiscated all British goods, and seized upon every 
English subject he could catch. Even neutral vessels, which 



-i8o8.] GEORGE III. AND NAPOLEON 615 

touclied at British ports, were declared liable to capture. Hence- 
forth, he made the acceptance of the continental system the con- 
dition of his friendship. England retaliated with effect hj issuing- 
Orders in Council, which forbade all trade with France and her 
dependencies, and still further diminished the rights of neutral 
powers. So powerful was Britain now at sea that she could do 
much more harm to the trade of the continent than it could inflict 
on British trade. Before the war was over, Britain had swept the 
commercial navies of her enemies off the sea, had seriously damaged 
the maritime position of the neutral powers, notably of the United 
States of America, and had secured for herseK a practical monopoly 
of the carrying trade of the world. In 1807 she seized the Danish 
fl.eet, and kept it until the peace, because she had good reason for 
knowing that Napoleon was preparing to employ it against her. 
She captured at her leisure the colonies of France, Spain, and 
Holland, and thus built up a new colonial system for herself which 
compensated for the loss of America. She did not even lose her 
trade with the continent, for colonial produce and many manu- 
factured articles could be obtained only from the English. A vast 
system of smuggling grew up, whereby British products were 
introduced into Napoleon's empire. Nothing was more fatal to 
Napoleon than this continental system. The high prices of com- 
modities, and the dislocation of trade which flowed from it, did 
much to stir up hatred of his rule among his subjects. 

17. After Tilsit, Portugal, the old and faithful ally of England, 
stood almost alone in rejecting the continental system. There- 
upon Napoleon sent a French army under General 
Junot to Portugal. It easily occupied the country, pjsing 
and drove the Portuguese government to take refuge against 
in Brazil. In annexing Portugal. Napoleon had the J^Us^^^"' 
help of his ally, Charles iv. of Spain. Charles, an 
incomiDetent and worthless king, was on very bad terms with his 
heir, the Infant Ferdinand. At last father and son both appealed 
to Napoleon, who, in 1808, forced them both to abdicate their 
rights. In their stead Napoleon made his brother, Joseph, king of 
Naples, king of Spain. This was perhaps the worst blunder that 
Napoleon ever made. Hitherto Spain had quietly followed his 
lead, but the Spaniards bitterly resented the emperor's claim to 
bestow their throne at his will, and a popular rising soon set the 
whole peninsula on fire. For the first time on the continent 
Napoleon had roused a whole nation against him. Though the 
Spanish insurrectionary government was weak and tui'bulent. 



6i6 



GEORGE III. AND NAPOLEON 



[1808- 



though. its armies were nrntinoiis, ill-proYided, and miserably 
led, the French could only hold the ground on which they were 
encamped. Every Spanish peasant took arms, and every French 
straggler was mercilessly cut off. In a few months a French 
army nearly twenty thousand strong was forced to capitulate to 
the Spaniards at Baylen, Joseph Buonaparte was driven from 
Madrid, and the emperor, who ruled G-ermany and Italy without 
trouble, found all his plans frustrated by the heroic resistance of 
the Spanish people. 

THE BUONAPARTE FAMILY 

Charles Buonaparte, m. Letitia Eamolino, 
d. 1785. I 



Joseph, 

king 

of 

Spain, 

d. 1844. 



Kapoleon I., m. (1) Josephine Liicien. 
1804-1814. Beauhamais. 

(2) Maria 
Louisa 
of Austria. 



(2) 



" Napoleon 11.," Eugene, 
duke of 
Eeichstadt, 
d. 1832. 



Hortense, m.- 



Louis, king 

of Holland. 

I 
Napoleon hi., 

1852-1870, 

d. 1873. 

I 

Louis Napoleon, 

" Prince 

Imperial," 

d. 1879. 



Jerome, 

king of 

Westphalia. 

I 

Jerome 

Napoleon, 

m. Clotilda 

of Italy. 

Victor. 



Arthur 
Wellesley's 
conquest of 
Portugal, 
1808. 



18. Since Tilsit, Engiand had been fighting Napoleon single- 
handed. The resistance of the peninsula to Napoleon now gave 
us once more continental allies, and an opportunity to 
assail the enemy by land as well as by sea. The 
greatest enthusiasm was expressed in England for the 
heroic Spaniards, but the government was exceeding-ly 
slow in taking advantage of the chance which it now 
had. At last a small force was sent to Portugal under Sir Arthur 
Wellesley, the hero of the Maratha war. Wellesley's operations at 
once showed that he was as competent to deal with a European 
as with an Oriental enemy. He wisely kept his troops together, 
and struck a decisive blow as soon as he could. On August 21 
he completely defeated Junot at the battle of ViTniero. At the 
moment of the engagement, however, Wellesley was superseded in 
his command by the arrival of an incompetent senior officer, Sir 
Harry Burrard. Burrard stopped all pursuit of the enemy, and 
showed so little vigour that Junot recovered his strength and 
began to negotiate. A few days later the convention of Cintra 



-iSo9.] GEORGE III. AND NAPOLEON 617 

was signed between the two forces, by which Junot agreed to 
evacnate Portugal if his whole army and his arms were shipped 
over to France. Thus was Portugal cleared of the French, but 
people at home thought that Junot had been let off too easily, and 
were very angry at the favourable terms granted to him. 

19. Later in 1808 Sir John Moore became commander in the 

peninsula. His force was strengthened, and he was instructed to 

march through Portugal to the Ebro, and unite with ^j^^ failure 

the Spanish armies. It was, however, too late for of Sir John 

Moore to act with safety. Alarmed at the disasters of Moore. 

1808-1809. 
Baylen and Cintra, Napoleon himself went to Spain, 

and mustered all his available troops in a desperate effort to crush 
the national movement. The Spanish armies crumbled away 
before the genius and the superior forces of the emperor. Early 
in December Napoleon entered Madrid in triumph. His victory 
was fatal to the advance of Moore, who had already reached Sala- 
manca. On learning the defeat of the Spaniards, the English 
general's only hope was in a hasty retreat to the sea. Napoleon 
hurried after him, but Moore moved still faster, over bad mountain 
roads, amid the storms and snows of winter. His troops became 
demoralized, disorderly, and mutinous. Though other business now 
took away Napoleon from Spain, one of the best of his marshals, 
G-eneral Soult, continued to pursue the retreating British. Moore 
managed to make his way to Coruf)a by January 10, 1809, only to 
find that the fleet, which he expected would be there to take him 
home, had not yet arrived. Thus driven to bay, Moore was forced 
to fight against Soult the hattle of Coruna. The English general 
was slain in the battle, but the French were beaten off. But the 
ships had now come up, and the only result of the victory was that 
it gave a safe embarkation to Moore's army. 

20. Napoleon had hurried away from Spain because Austria 
had again taken up arms. His tyranny had already begun to do. 
its work in Germany, and there were signs that the 
G-ermans, like the Spaniards, were eager to tlu'ow off between 
his yoke. Even the Austrian court was inspired with France and 
some touch of a patriotic spirit, and Napoleon found jgog^^^' 

a much harder task before him than in the days of 
Austerlitz and Jena. 

21. The extension of the war from Spain to Austria gave 
Britain a unique opportunity. Yigorous efforts were made, and 
an army of over two hundred thousand regulars was enroUed. Un- 
luckily, the ministers did not know what to do with this great force. 

Y 2 



6l8 GEORGE III. AND NAPOLEON [1S09- 

They ctose to send a large portion of it to attack Antwerp, wlose 
fortifications were impregnable, and which lay in a district well 
Walehepen affected to the Trench emperor. To make matters 
and Wag- worse, the command of this army was given to Pitt's 
ram, 1809. gj^gj. brother, the second earl of Chatham, who was a 
thoroughly incompetent commander. Chatham got no further than 
the island of Walcheren, in Zeeland, amidst whose unhealthy 
swamps his troops soon lost their health and vigour. When fever 
had swept away thousands of soldiers, the expedition was abandoned 
in despair. Nothing was done to stimulate the national movement 
in Germany, which was soon crushed by Napoleon. On July 6 
the emperor won a great victory over the Austrians at Wagram, 
and forced them to make peace. He had triumphed at every 
point, and was now stronger than ever. 

22. The only wise thing done by the EngKsh ministers in 1809 
was to appoint Arthur Wellesley to the supreme command in the 
The battle peninsula. Wellesley was now master of Portugal, 
ofTalavera, and was busily engaged in creating an effective 
1809. Portuguese army. Had the troops wasted at Wal- 
cheren been entrusted to his direction, he might easily have driven 
the French out of Spain. As it was, he had less than twenty 
thousand English under his command. Nevertheless, he boldly 
marched into the heart of the peninsula, hoping to maintain himself 
there with the help of the Spaniards. He found to liis disgust that 
the Spaniards were of little use to him, and that he had to depend 
altogether upon his own troops. Soult, who was still at the head 
of the French, formed a skilful plan of occupying the ground 
between Wellesley and Portugal, while King Joseph lured him 
further into Spain. Wellesley nearly fell into the trap, but was 
saved by Joseph preferring to risk a battle rather than lose Madrid. 
On July 28 Wellesley defeated Joseph's army at the hattle of 
Talavera, a victory towards which the Spaniards contributed 
nothing. Wellesley did not venture to pursue, and only escaped 
from Soult by a roundabout march over the hills, which was as 
fatal to the discipline of his troops as the retreat of Moore to 
Coruiia. Yet the brilliance of his victory broke the prestige of the 
French army, and gave Wellesley so strong a position that the 
government was afraid to supersede him. He was now raised to 
the peerage as Yiscount Wellington of Talavera. 

23. After the pacification of Germany, Naj)oleon poured all his 
available troops into the peninsula. The incapable ministry left 
Wellington to shift for himseK, and the factious opposition 



-l8io.] 



GEORGE HI. AND NAPOLEON 



619 



I s s n H r...... 




620 GEORGE III. AND NAPOLEON [1810- 

denounced him as incompetent. He now showed as much self- 
restraint and caution as he had before shown courage and vigour. 
Toppes Finding it impossible to keep the field against the 

Vedpas and overwhelming forces brought against Mm, Wellington 
^"saeo, constructed a double chain of entrenchments, called 

the lines of Torres Vedras, between the sea and the 
lower Tagus, by which he was able to hold Lisbon and its neigh- 
bourhood. The French were so busy in Spain that they left 
Portugal to itself until the late summer of 1810. At last, in Sep- 
tember, G-eneral Massena invaded Portugal. Wellington cbecked 
his progress at the battle of JBusaco, but once more retired after 
victory in the field. He remained within the lines of Torres 
Yedras till the spring of 1811, when bad weather and hard fare 
drove Massena out of Portugal. 

24. In 1811 Wellington ventured on a more forward policy. 
In May h.e won another victory over Massena at Fuentes de 
Fue te d Onoro, and a few days later. Marshal Beresford, the 
Oiiopo and English general of the Portuguese, gained a remark- 
Albuepa, able success by sheer hard fighting at Albuera, where 

sis thousand British soldiers stubbornly withstood the 
attack of a much more numerous French force. Yet the only 
result of these triumphs was that Wellington was able to maintain 
himself in Portugal. 

25. In 1812 the long alliance between -JsTapoleon and Russia 
came to an end, and the best French troops were withdrawn 
The Rus- ^T^oin. the peninsula to form the Grand Army of nearly 
sian, Gep- haK a million men, which the French emperor led 
man, and -^q the invasion of Russia. Napoleon penetrated to 

Sl3£LTllSrl 

national Moscow, and occupied the ancient Russian capital, 

pevolts. But, as in Spain, he had set a whole people against 

him, and the incessant attacks of the Russians and the 
rigours of a northern winter drove him back to Grermany, after a 
disastrous retreat which almost annihilated the Grand Army. As 
the consequence of the Russian expedition, Wellington had an 
easier task before him. He resolved to invade Spain, and in the 
spring prepared the way for this step by storming with terrible 
loss the border fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos. On 
July 22 he defeated General Marmont in the battle of Salamanca, 
and pressed on to Madrid, which he occupied in August amidst 
the rejoicings of the populace. At the approach of winter, how- 
ever, Wellington was once more forced to retreat to the Portuguese 
frontier. It was the last of his retreats. In 1813 all Germany 



-i8i4.] GEORGE III. AND NAPOLEON 621 

rose against iN'apoleonic domination, and, desj)ite the extraordinary 
energy and skill of the emperor, his troops were defeated at the 
hattle of Leipzig, and by the end of the year he was driven over 
the Rhine. It was inevitable in such circumstances that the 
French armies in Spain should be weakened to support Napoleon 
in his life-and-death struggle in Germany. Welling'ton now over- 
ran Spain from end to end, and on June 21 defeated King Joseph 
in the hattle of Vitoria. After this the French were thrown back 
on their frontier, where Soult, the best of the French generals, 
strove to rally them to defend their own land. 

26. In 1814 France was invaded from the north, east, and south. 
NaxDoleon struggled gallantly till the last, but, late in March, the 
Germans and Russians entered Paris, and on April 3 j^e fall of 
the emperor abdicated his throne. Wellington, a duke Napoleon, 
after his victory at Yitoria, had already entered France ^°^'*' 
from the Spanish side, and a week after IS^apoleon's abdication, of 
which he had not yet heard, he won his last triumph over Soult at 
Toulouse. Napoleon's fall had already ended the war. The de- 
throned conqueror was sent to the island of Elba, and Louis xviii., 
brother of Louis xvi., was made king of France. The conditions 
of peace were determined by the first treaty of Paris, and it was 
arranged that the final settlement of Europe should be effected in 
a general congress, which soon met at Yienna. 

27. Before the Napoleonic war was over, Britain was engaged 
in another struggle with the United States of America. The 
Orders in Council, provoked by the continental system, 

had excited great discontent in America, which, after ^j^j^ ^Yie 
all Europe had fallen under Napoleon's influence, was United 
the only neutral state of importance left. The British jg^! 2^^181 4 
carried out the war in as high-handed a spirit as 
that which Napoleon had himseK showed. They seized many 
American ships which sought to escape the blockade and trade 
with France. Others they searched for enemies' goods, or to find 
deserters from the British navy who had taken service under Ameri- 
can colours. In disgust at this policy the Americans broke off all 
trade with England, and declared war in 1812. The English now 
abolished the Orders in Council, a step which, if taken earlier, 
might have averted the war. The Americans invaded Canada and 
failed, but won a good many small victories at sea, especially with 
their large and heavily armed frigates, which easily captured our 
smaller frigates and worked havoc on our trade. The tide v/as 
turned when the British man-of-war, the Shannon, commanded 



622 GEORGE III. AND NAPOLEON [1814- 

bv Captain Broke, captured the Americaii Ghesajpeake, after a 
sliort but sharp encounter. The American navy proved too weak 
to attempt a general action or to protect the coast from blockade 
or invasion. After the end of the Peninsular War, Wellington's 
veterans were shipped over the Atlantic, where they gained some 
successes, but failed on other occasions. At last, in 1814, the 
mediation of the tsar led to both parties making peace in the 
treaty of Ghent. It was a wasteful and unnecessary war, which 
might have been avoided had both parties shown more tact and 
good sense. 

28. In March, 1815, ISTapoleon, who could not rest at Elba, 
returned to France, and was welcomed with such enthusiasm that he 
The Hun- "^^^ ^^ once restored to power and Louis xviii. driven 
dred Days, into exile. Thereupon the Congress of Yienna ceased its 

work, while the chief powers collected armies on every 
side of Prance to assail the disturber of the peace. Napoleon saw 
that liis best chance was in promptitude, and he resolved to make 
a rapid move against the allied army which was assembling in the 
Southern IN'etherlands under Wellington, hoping to defeat it before 
the Russians and Austrians were ready to invade France from the 
east. The allies lay extended to the south of Brussels, the left 
wing being held by the Prussians, under Marshal Bliicher, while 
Wellington, with a motley force of English, Netherlanders, and 
Hanoverians, held the centre and right. On June 16 ^Napoleon 
defeated the Prussians at Ligny, and forced them to retire. His 
attack on the British outposts at Qtiatre Bras was not successful, 
but the retreat of the Prussians forced Wellington also to concen- 
trate nearer Brussels. iN'either section of the allies had been much 
weakened, though Bliicher was driven back to some distance from 
Wellington's quarters. 

29. On Sunday, June 18, Napoleon delivered his chief 
attack on Wellington. The allies were encamped on a low ridge, 

about two miles south of Waterloo, and immediately 
Waterloo. I^^fore the village of Mont- Saint- Jean. The country 

house of Hougoumont protected his right, a farm 
caUed La Haye Sainte formed his centre, and another called La 
Haye was on his left. The numbers of the two armies were about 
equal, but Napoleon's troops were more homogeneous and better 
trained. The French began the battle by a desperate onslaught 
on Hougoumont, which was gallantly defended. Then the French 
infantry and cavalry marched in close columns against the EngKsh 
centre, supported by a heavy artillery fire. The British formed 



-i8is.] 



GEORGE III. AND NAPOLEON 



623 



squares to resist tlie French cavalry, and stood imflincliingly a whole 
series of fierce attacks. The battle raged all the afternoon, and 
the English generally stood firm. But the French took La Have 
Sainte, and made a serious gap in the squares on our left. They 
were, however, so exhausted by the struggle that it is doubtful 
how far they could have maintained their advantages. But the 
Prussians were now arriving from Wavre, after a heavy march. 
The last desperate charge of the French guard failed, and there- 
upon Wellington ordered a general advance. The French line was 
now broken, and the Prussians, following up the pursuit, effectually 
scattered the remnants of Napoleon's last army. The allies marched 
to Paris, and Napoleon took refuge on an English man-of-war. 

Allies ■Mii;^ fo. 

French CZtU ^ 

Prussians. mSiD CgS 

Mont St 




Emery Valker sc. 



His restoration had only lasted a hundred days. The deposed em- 
peror was taken to St. Helena, a little island in the South Atlantic, 
where he lived in captivity until his death. 

30. The second peace of Paris now restored Louis xviii., and 
somewhat diminished the territories of France, which had already, 
in 1814, been reduced to those which it had possessed before 
1792. England surrendered many of her colonial conquests, but 
retained Mauritius and some West Indian islands from ^^^^ ^^^_ 
France, and Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope from gpess of 
the Dutch. The Congress of Vienna now completed its Yl^^"^' 
settlement of Europe. It restored most of the petty 
princes of Italy, whom Napoleon had driven out, including the 
pope ; but it gave Milan and Yenice to Austria, whose arms aloud 



624 



GEORGE III. AND NAPOLEON 



[1815- 




-i820.] GEORGE III. AND NAPOLEON 625 

protected the smaller rulers from the iUwill of their subjects. 
Napoleon's German settlement was practically continued, and his 
allies, the lesser princes, were let off very Kghtly, Prussia was 
compensated for her sufferings by receiving most of the German 
lands on the left bank of the Rhine, while George iv. was re- 
stored to Hanover with the title of king. The tsar received back 
most of Poland, and the old Dutch Republic and Austrian Nether- 
lands were united in the new kingdom of the Netherlands, of 
which the prince of Orange was king. Everywhere the kings 
looked after their own interests, and paid scanty attention to the 
national feeling which had done so much to destroy the power 
of Napoleon. They were equally hostile to the ideas of freedom, 
which had survived as the best side of the work of the French 
Revolution. For these reasons the Vienna settlement, though it 
secured peace for a time, did not prove permanent, and provoked 
bitter discontent from the beginning. 

31. England was terribly exhausted by the long war. Taxes 
were high ; the national debt had enormously increased ; trade did 
not improve after the peace, and a new corn law, „ 
which prevented the importation of foreign wheat tUl after the 
its price was 80s. a quarter, made bread so dear that peace, 

IRI"^— 1R90 

many workmen could not get enough to eat. Things 
became worse through the unwisdom of the government, which made 
no attempt to grapple with the troubles that beset the country. 
It was still afraid of the principles of the French Revolution, and 
saw no means of meeting just discontent save repression. A 
natural result was that riots broke out in many places. In the 
country the labourers burnt the farmers' ricks, and in the industrial 
towns the factory hands destroyed their masters' labour-saving 
machines. Even to demand parliamentary reform was looked 
upon as seditious, and in 1819 a mass meeting of Lancashire 
reformers, who marched in military order to a small waste plot 
in Manchester, called St. Peter's Field, was dispersed with un- 
necessary violence by a cavalry charge. The affair was magnified 
and described as the Manchester Massacre or Peterloo. It alarmed 
the ministers so much that they passed through parliament a 
series of; repressive measures, known as the Six Acts, by which the 
right of public meetings was severely restricted. Next Death of 
year (1820) the old king died. Of late years he had been George III., 
blind and deaf as well as mad, and was utterly uncon- ^ ^°- 
scions that the great power which he had handed on to his wretched 
son had, happily perhaps for the nation, slipped unnoticed away. 



CHAPTER VI 

GREAT BRITAIN DURING THE EIGH- 
TEENTH CENTURY: THE INDUSTRIAL 
REVOLUTION 

1, Up to tlie early years of the reign of George iii. England 
remained mainly a nation of farmers and merchants. By the 
_ . , accession of G-eorge i. she had won the trading 

ascendency supremacy over the world. The treaty of Utrecht 
of Gpeat and the Asiento gave a fresh start to our commerce. 

Bristol merchants grew rich on the slave-trade, which 
was so profitable that no one thought of its wickedness. The 
growth of the East India Company's territories, the conquest of 
the French colonies, and the spread of our own, all gave fresh 
openings to British men of business. London grew fast, Liverpool 
began to rival Bristol in the American trade, and, after the Union 
had made England and Scotland a single country commercially, 
Grlasgow became a formidable competitor with the great English 
ports. It was not by peace and free trade, but by successful war 
and monopoly, that Britain won its preponderating commercial 
position. Yet having got it, she managed to beat all possible 
competitors. Even the loss of the American colonies did not stop 
her progress, and the volume of trade between Britain and the 
United States was soon greater than it had ever been in the days 
when we enjoyed a monopoly of traffic with them. 

2. Manufacturing industry also grew steadily during the first 
liaK of the eighteenth century ; but it was on the old lines and 

with the old tools. There was little elaborate machinery, 
invenfions li^l® concentration of labour into factories, limited 

division of labour, and miserable means of communica- 
tion. Early in the reign of G-eorge iii. a series of discoveries 
enormously multiplied the power of production. Four great 
inventions made the cotton trade, hitherto one of the smallest of 
our industries, the rival of the woollen trade itseK. These were 
626 



i820.] THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 627 

Arkwright's system of spinning' by rollers whicli led to liis water- 
frame ; Hargreaves's spinning -jenny, which, enabled one person to 
spin several threads at once; Crompton's mule, which combined 
the principles of Arkwright's and Hargreaves's devices ; and Cart- 
wright's jpoiver-loom, which enabled weaving operations to be 
extended proportionately to the improvements in spinning. Mean- 
wliile, the steam-engine, known for the best part of a century in 
a clumsy and unpractical shape, was so greatly improved by the 
inventive skill of James Watt that it became the chief agent in 
revolutionizing the old state of trade and labour, and ultimately of 
society. The iron trade was immensely developed by the discovery, 
largely due to John Roebuck, that iron-ore might be smelted with 
pit- coal, as well as with charcoal, the supply of which was limited 
by the small amount of timber available for fuel. One result of 
this was an immense increase in the output of our collieries. The 
labours of Josiah Wedg'wood gave a new impetus to the potteries 
of North Staffordsliire. In almost every trade it became possible 
to produce goods more abundantly and at a cheaper rate. 

3. Better communications were as much needed as machines to 
make English trade grow. As long as goods could only be carried 
about by pack-horses over hill-paths, or in heavy 
waggons along iiifamous roads, only places near to- tup^pikes 
gether could exchange their commodities with each 

other. Great efforts were accordingly made to open up communi- 
cations by hard roads between one town and another, and the 
system grew up of erecting turnpikes, at which tolls were levied, 
on all the main roads, and devoting these tolls to the betterment 
of the highways. Yery slowly the condition of the main roads 
were improved, and many bridges were built at great expense to 
span over rivers, hitherto only passable by ferry-boats or by 
dangerous fords. At the end of the century the chief roads were 
so hard and smooth that fast coaches, conveying passengers and 
mails, could go over them at a rapid rate. The postal services 
were correspondingly improved, and most important towns had 
daily posts, which were often conveyed in a quarter of the time 
which was formerly taken. 

4. E/oad transport necessarily remained too costly for the 
conveyance of heavy goods and pieces of machinery. In order 
to enable horses to drag heavier weights than they tramways, 
could carry even over the best of roads, recourse 

was had to tramways. The earliest of these were in the colliery 
districts, and especially in Northumberland and Durham, where 



628 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY [1714- 

clieap means of conveying coals from tlie pits to tlie ships were 
indispensable, if the coal trade were to grow. The earlier tramways 
were made hy pieces of smooth timber being let into the roads for 
the wheels of the waggons to run on, but after 1776 cast-iron rails, 
which were smoother and more durable, superseded wooden ones. 

5. Water-carriage, however, was much cheaper than land- 
traction, even along iron tramways, and the greatest improvements 
Navigable i^ communications were made by making rivers 
pivers and navigable, and by the construction of artificial water- 
canals, courses, or canals. In 1720 an act was passed for 
making the river Irwell navigable up to Manchester, while the 
opening of the Aire and C alder navigation did wonders for the 
trade of the West Riding of Yorkshire. In 1761 Francis, duke 
of Bridgwater, called in the services of a shrewd engineer, named 
Brindley, to make a canal to convey coal from his collieries at 
Worsley to Manchester. This Bridgwater Canal was afterwards 
extended to the Mersey at Runcorn, and soon superseded the 
difficult and uncertain navigation of the Irwell as the readiest and 
cheapest means of communication between Manchester and Liver- 
pool. The wealth and fame thus acquired by the duke of Bridg- 
water directed general attention to canals. Between 1758 and 
1803, 165 Canal Acts were passed and nearly 3000 miles of canals 
were constructed. Gradually the Thames, the Trent, the Severn, 
and the Mersey were all connected together. A ship canal con- 
nected Grioucester with the deep waters of the Severn at Berkeley. 
One canal united Glasgow and Edinburgh, and the Caledonian 
Canal joined together Inverness and Fort William, and enabled 
small ships to avoid the difficult navigation round the northern 
extremity of Scotland. So convenient were canals that they were 
used not only for the haulage of goods, but also for the transport 
of passengers, who were conveyed in swift packets drawn by horses 
at rates much less, and with comfort much greater, than by coaches 
along the high-roads. Canals were to this period what railways 
were to a later age. 

6. The new inventions, the widening of markets by improved 
means of commujiications, and the rapid increase of the volume of 
_ trade, made Britain a great manufacturing country, 
system and ^^^ ^Q2^i^ of industry grew up, especially in those 
the Indus- districts where coal and iron were abundant, or where 
lutfon ^^°" ^^^^^ was cheap means of access to the ports, Lanca- 
shire became the chief seat of the cotton trade, while 

the old clothing towns in the West Riding grew quickly in 



-I820.J 



THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 



629 




Ornery Walker »c." 



630 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY [1714- 

"wealtli and population. Some of tlie older industrial centres were 
replaced \ij new ones, and in particular the iron trade deserted tlie 
Weald of Sussex and Kent for districts such as Birmingham, 
Sheffield, Grlamorganshire, and the region surrounding Grlasgow, 
where pit- coal was procurable on the spot. Population increased 
enormously, and between 1750 and 1801 (when the first census was 
taken) ran up from six to nine millions. Everywhere the old 
domestic system of manufactures gave way to the factory system. 
The process by which these changes were brought about has 
sometimes been called the industrial revolution. Production 
was now centred in growing towns. Instead of the small master 
working in his own home with a few apprentices and journeymen, 
the rich capitalist employer with his army of factory hands came 
in. A new and keener spirit of competition arose, in which only 
the strongest, wisest, and most cunning survived. Many of the 
masters were rough, illiterate, and hard, though shrewd and far- 
seeing in business. Their workmen, gathered from all the country 
round into new, badly built, unhealthy cottages, were forced to 
work for long hours in dark, dirty, and unwholesome workshops. 
The state did nothing to protect them ; the masters only thought 
of their profits ; and unjust laws prevented the operatives combining 
together in trades unions to help themselves. Women and children 
were forced to work as long and as hard as the men. A regular 
system grew up of transporting pauper and destitute children to 
weary factory work. The workmen were ignorant, brutal, poor, 
and oppressed. Trade and employment fluctuated constantly, and 
in hard times there was much distress. The workmen naturally 
listened to agitators and fanatics, or took violent means of avenging 
their wrongs. They had no constitutional means of redress, for even 
the masters seldom had votes, since the new towns sent no members 
to parliament. The transfer of the balance of population, wealth, 
and energy from the south and east to the north and midlands made 
parliamentary reform necessary. It also produced a great deal of 
rivalry between the rich manufacturers and the old landed gentry, 
a struggle in which the former were bound ultimately to win. As 
the landlords became after 1760 more and more Tory, so did the 
trading classes become more and more Kadical. 

7. Side by side with the industrial revolution went an agrarian 

The agpa- revolution. In 1760 a large proportion of arable land 

pian revo- remained common-field, on which, after harvest, all 

u ion. villagers had the right to turn their cattle, and which 

was cultivated on the wasteful old three years' system of wheat, 



-i820.] THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 63 1 

fallow, and barley. Farms were generally small, and cultivated with 
little skill or capital. Custom alone was the guide of the ordinary 
farmer. Yet the small farmer, whose home was often the seat of a 
domestic manufacture, was self-supporting, and independent of 
markets. G-radually the increase of population increased the de- 
mand for food. First of aU, England ceased to export corn, as she 
had done in large quantities up to the middle of the century. Then 
great attention was paid to agriculture, with the results that a 
series of improvements in cultivation revolutionized husbandi-y, 
and largely augmented the supply of food. Norfolk set the 
example of agricultural reform to the rest of England. There 
Townshend, after his quarrel with Walpole, settled down to farm 
his estate at Raynham, and his example made the cultivation of 
the turnip general, and so made it possible to get rid of the 
wasteful systems of fallows. Large farms replaced small holdings. 
The capitalist farmer now came in, like the capitalist employer. 
His gangs of poor and ignorant agricultural labourers were the 
counterpart of the swarm of factory hands. The business of 
farming was worked more scientifically, with better tools and 
greater success. The breeds of sheep and cattle were improved. 
A long series of Enclosure Acts began in 1760, by which common 
of pasture was greatly limited, and arable common lands were 
almost got rid of. The change was necessary, for without en- 
closures good farming was impossible. 

8. The limiting of their common-rights bore hardly on the 
rural poor, and nearly all the land enclosed became the private 
property of the great landlords. Moreover, the price Pauperism 
of corn fluctuated violently, and, especially after the and the 
Revolutionary and !N"apoleonic wars, was often very ^°''" Laws, 
high. Tilings were made worse by Corn Laws, first passed in 
1773, by which foreign corn was only allowed admission to British 
markets when the price of wheat was high. The benefit of these 
high prices and of the improvements in agriculture went to the 
landlords and farmers. The condition of the agricultural laboui-er 
got no better, and the great mass of the rural population were mere 
labourers. The small freeholders or yeomen, so powerful in the 
seventeenth century, were rapidly disappearing, except in out-of- 
the-way parts of the country. The decline of domestic manu- 
factures and the Enclosure Acts were partly accountable for their 
decline, but the main cause of it was the political importance attached 
to land-holding after 1688, which caused men, anxious to rule the 
countiy , to buy them up at high prices. It paid small capitalists better 



632 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY [1714- 

to invest their money in other ways. So the power of the territorial 
aristocracy grew, and the land passed into fewer and fewer hands, 
for the small squire, rustic in garb and speech, who never travelled 
further than Ms county town, was swallowed up almost as com- 
pletely as the yeomanry. Meanwhile, pauperism became a more 
pressing evil, especially as the custom grew up of supplementing 
the inadequate wages received by the rural labourers by a system 
of doles from the poor-rates. This practice grew to such an 
extent that, in the early years of the nineteenth century, a seventh 
of the population was in receipt of poor-law relief. Thus, despite 
the increase of population, wealth, and trade, there was much 
distress and discontent, which was increased by the hardships and 
high prices that resulted from the great wars against the French 
Revolution and Napoleon. 

9. The eighteenth century saw as complete a revolution in 
men's thoughts and beKefs as in their relations to material nature. 

The old religious passions which had raged throughout 

The age or ^^ seventeenth century, and divided men as fiercely 

reason. v^' , -^ 

as ever in the days of Queen Anne, died down with 

remarkable suddenness under the first Greorges. The High Church 
and Puritan parties alike lost ground. The higher clergy were now 
mostly Low Churchmen, or Latitudinarians, or, as we should call 
them. Broad Churchmen. Laymen became careless and sceptical. 
Preachers taught that men should be prudent, tolerant, moral, and 
moderate. A school which disbelieved in miracles and revelation 
grew up, called the Deists. Men boasted that they lived in the 
" age of reason," and looked upon all enthusiasm or emotion with 
suspicion and distrust. Leading clergymen were anxious to escape 
signing the articles and repeating the creeds. English Presby- 
terians became Unitarians. Church-going ceased to be fashionable, 
and few new churches were built. 

10. The most emotional and enthusiastic of modern forms of 
Protestantism sprang up in strong reaction from the general temper 
The Metho- ^^ ^^ eighteenth century. About 1729 a few earnest 
dist Move- Oxford men formed a little society, whose members 
ment. were remarkable for the holiness and good order of 
their Hves. They were laughed at by their fellow-students, and 
nicknamed Methodists. Their leader was John Wesley (1703- 
1791), a fellow of Lincoln College, and with him were associated 
his brother, Charles Wesley, afterwards famous as a hymn-writer, 
and George Whitefield, a poor servitor of Pembroke CoUege, who 
soon gained extraordinary influence by his vivid and heart-stirring 



>i82oJ THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 633 

sermons. Tlie society was broken up wlien Jolin Wesley went, in 
1735, on a mission to the colony of Georgia. In 1738, however, 
Wesley returned to England, where he fell under the influence of 
the Moravians, a German sect of gentle enthusiasts, and convinced 
himseK that he was for the first time converted to a true sense 
of reKgion. Henceforth Wesley and his friends preached with 
a stronger fervour than ever. The soher and decorous clergy 
thought the Methodists mad, and refused to let them preach in 
their churches. In 1739, therefore, the Methodists first built 
chapels of their own, though they declared that they were not 
dissenters, but anxious only to labour on the ground left untilled 
by the Church. For the rest of their lives Wesley and Whitefield 
wandered ceaselessly over the land. Wherever they went they 
produced a storm of opposition or enthusiasm. They were often 
in danger of their lives, and the wild excitement that followed their 
preaching sometimes led their followers into mad extravagancies. 
But they roused many thousands to lead new lives, and to 
shake off slugg-ish indifference and brutal vice. Before long 
Wesley saw that, to make the effects of his preaching last, he must 
establish an organized society. A man of forethought, with great 
statesmanlike capacity, he soon raised the Methodist body into 
a large and well-governed community, which, as time went on, 
gradually drifted into the position of a new dissenting church. Long 
before this Wesley had broken with his old comrade, Whitefield, 
through theological differences. Whitefield was a Calvinist like 
the old Puritans, while Wesley's High Church surroundings had 
made him a strong Arminian. However, the great preacher lacked 
Wesley's organizing power, and the Calvinistic Methodists, of 
whom he was the chief, gradually dwindled away in England, 
though in Wales a parallel Methodist movement fell ultimately 
almost entirely under Calvinistic auspices, and to tliis day the 
Calvinistic Methodists are the most munerous religious body in the 
Principality. 

11. The most striking feature of the religious life of the latter 
part of the eighteenth century was the Evangelical Movement. 
This was nearly akin to Methodism, and yet was not -j-j^g Evan- 
simply a further growth of it. Though some of the gelieal 
earliest Evangelicals were also Methodists, the move- Movement, 
ment was more properly a revival of seventeenth-century Puritan- 
ism, which affected both the Church and the older Nonconformist 
bodies. It was Calvinistic in its theology, and therefore strongly 
out of sympathy with much of Wesley's teaching. It did not lead 



634 ^^-^ EIGHTEENTH CENTURY [1714- 

to the formation of any new Chnrcli, but influenced all tlie existing 
ones, and produced as its results a stronger sense of personal 
religion, and a zeal for good works and pMlantkropic efforts. The 
Evangelicals founded missionary societies, the Bible Society, and 
Sunday schools, and did much to promote the movements for the 
abolition of negro slavery. The leaders of the movement were not 
learned, but good and seK-denying, though in some ways rather 
narrow in their teaching. The two greatest Evangelicals were 
laymen: William Cowper, the reformer of English poetry, and 
William WHberf orce, the Tory member for Yorkshire, and friend 
of the younger Pitt. Fear of the irreligious character of the 
French Revolution largely strengthened the Evangelical ranks, and 
during the early years of the nineteenth century the Evangelical 
revival exercised its widest influence. 

12. In Scotland there was the same contrast as in England 
between the prevailing Latitudinarianism and the Puritan reaction 

from it. The great question in dispute was the lawful- 
Religion in jj^ggg Qf private patronage, which had been restored in 

the Scotch Church in 1712. Twice at least during 
the eighteenth century there were secessions from the Established 
Church on the part of the sturdy Covenanters, who would make no 
compromise with the state. Within the Church there was a constant 
conflict between the Moderates, who upheld, and the Evangelicals, 
who opposed, the law of patronage. Towards the end of the century 
the Evangelicals, as in Eng-land, grew much stronger. It was not 
until the reign of George ill. that much toleration was shown to 
the Scotch Episcopalians, partly by reason of Presbyterian bigotry 
and partly because most of them were Jacobites. Thus, during the 
century religious toleration was established in England and Scot- 
land alike, for the whole temper of the age was averse to persecu- 
tion, and gradually the laws against disbelievers in the Trinity and 
the Koman Catholics fell into disuse. The Evangelical revival was 
unfavourable to the Roman Catholic claims to emancipation, though 
enlightened men, like Pitt, saw that they were just and necessary. 

13. The changes of the eighteenth century brought with them 
many abuses, but the spirit of humanity and philanthropy had 
„ ._ begun to shine amidst the rough and brutal manners 
tarianism of the age. This spirit was largely fed from the 
and philan- Methodist and Evangelical movements, but was also 

largely due to that wide sympathy for human suffering 
and indignation against oppression and injustice which was among 
the best sides of the teaching of the French freethinkers, which 



-i820.] THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ^H 

made a cynic like Yoltaire enthusiastic, and rose to a wMte heat in 
the fervent sentimentalism of E-ousseau. Conspicuous among- the 
philanthropic movements of the time were the self-denying- labours 
of John Howard for the reform of the condition of the prisons, in 
which offenders of all classes had hitherto been herded together in 
total disreg-ard to their health and moral weKare. Even more 
memorable was the movement for the abolition of the trade in negro 
slaves imported from Africa into the American colonies, which, 
thoug-h conducted with callous disreg-ard to humanity-, had in the 
early part of the century been simply looked upon as an easy way , 
to get rich. At last, in 1787, there was formed the Society for 
the Abolition of the Slave Trade, of which Thomas Clarkson and 
WiUiam Wilberforce were leading members. The organization 
wisely avoided attacking slavery, but Clarkson collected evidence 
of the horrors of the " middle passage " across the Atlantic to 
America, during which nearly half of the negroes stolen from 
Africa died. Pitt, under Wilberforce's influence, showed an 
interest in the movement, which was on the verge of triumphing 
when the outbreak of the French Revolution frightened the richer 
classes into opposing a movement which now seemed to savour of 
revolutionary violence. It was not until 1807 that an act of 
parliament aboKshed the slave-trade, whereupon a fresh movement 
was started by Wilberforce for getting rid of slavery altogether. 
The same increasing regard to humanity produced the first factory 
acts for regulating the abuses of the factory system, and preventing 
children being overworked in mills and workshoj)S. 

14. Manners were stiil very rough. Popular literature and the 
stage were often broad and vulgar, and cruel amusements were still 
widely popular. Gambling and hard drinking were • i i-f 
very common, though less so at the end of the century 
than at the beginning. George iii.'s homely and decorous private 
life had no small influence for good, but its dulness forced his own 
sons into riotous disorder, and the " first gentleman of Europe," as 
his flatterers called George iv., set an example of everything that 
was bad. The tendency of the age was towards the breaking down 
of class distinctions. Increased facilities for travel and the spread of 
education produced more likeness in manners between gentry and 
tradesmen, and lessened the differences between townspeople and 
country folk. Love of show still, however, found plenty of ways of dis- 
playing itself. Old-fashioned people complained that the rich trades- 
man ceased living over his shop, resided in a suburban villa, and 
aped the fashions of the landed gentry in his style of living, his 



636 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY [1714- 

carriages, his travels, and the dresses of his wife and daughters. With 
less vain pomp, comfort and refinement grew, which, with high prices, 
made living much dearer. Though the garb of the upper classes 
remained long very costly and rich, the simpler styles of modern 
dress gradually set in as a result of the influence of E-ousseau, who 
taught that the equality of men should even extend to their clothes. 
Wigs were given up ; swords went out of fashion ; pantaloons and 
long boots superseded knee breeches, silk stockings, and shoes. 
Towards the end of the century the habit of sea-bathing set in, 
and became even more popular than the earlier custom of " taking 
the waters." George iii. made Weymouth a popular watering- 
place, and his eldest son did even more for Brighton, which from a 
fishing village became a great town. 

15. Early in the century architecture was the most flourishing 
of the arts, but later on it declined, and the mass of building of the 

G-eorgian period aimed at solid comfort rather than 
beauty. Towards the end of the century James Wyatt 
attempted to revive Gothic architecture, which had hitherto been 
looked upon with contempt, but he had neither the knowledge nor 
the taste for this. He nearly ruined Salisbury Cathedral with his 
" restorations," and, at the command of the prince regent, erected 
a commonplace though grandiose palace on the site of the historical 
castle of Windsor. But the height of bad taste was found in the 
fantastic Pavilion, on which the regent wasted huge sums at 
Brighton. As architecture feU away, other arts improved. A 
national English school of painting, foreshadowed by the rough 
but original genius of WOliam Hogarth, was founded by the great 
Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792). In 1768 the Royal Academy 
was established, with Sir Joshua for its first president. Somewhat 
later John Flaxman (1755-1826) established a British school of 
sculpture. There was much excellent work done in engraving, 
etching, and similar arts. Music received a new impetus when the 
greatest musician of his time, Frederick Handel, a Saxon, was 
brought to England to manage the Opera House. Failing as a man 
of business, and only moderately successful as a composer of operas, 
Handel turned to the Oratorio, producing his Messiah in 1741. 
This soon won a popularity which resulted in a wider love of serious 
music and a higher sense of the aims and dignity of the art. But 
though there was much good work done in nearly every branch, 
the general level in taste and feeling was not very high in any of 
the arts at the end of the eighteenth century. 

16. Literature and language faithfully mirrored the age. The 



-i82o.] THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 637 

poets of the early eighteentli century lacked passion and imag'ina- 
tion, and were fast l)ound ty self-imposed rules. Their favourite 
metre was the heroic couplet ; their favourite themes 
were satire, compliment, and criticism. The tendencies ^j^^ drama 
of the time were best expressed in the exquisitely 
finished and polished verse of Alexander Pope (1688-1744). How- 
ever, in Pope's followers the style which a great artist could 
ennoble became vapid, commonplace, and artificial. The drama 
declined like poetry. The last great dramatists of the old style 
were the refined and humorous Oliver Goldsmith and the brilliant 
and epigrammatic E/ichard Brinsley Sheridan, the Whig politician. 
But though few great plays were now produced, much pains was 
taken to edit and represent the work of Shakespeare and other 
older playwrights, and the drama more than held its own as a 
popular amusement. The age of David Garrick (1716-1779), the 
famous player and manager, marked, perhaps, the most flourishing 
period of English acting. 

17. Prose was better than poetry. There was now a standard 
prose-style, polished, idiomatic, forcible, and exact. Even the 
pamphlets and newspapers, which reflected the political 
and theological controversies of the time, showed 
the spread of a good fashion of writing. The periodical essay, 
made popular by Steele and Addison, long retained its vogue, 
until, in the hands of Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), it lost the 
lightness of touch which had been its greatest charm, and gave 
place to the novel, the magazine, and the political newspaper. The 
greatest men of letters of the time took an eager part in the political 
controversies which ushered in the Hanoverian period. Jonathan 
Swift, dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin (1667-1745), fiercely upheld 
the Tories and the treaty of Utrecht, while against him Addison 
wrote his way by his Whig pamphlets to the position of a secre- 
tary of state. Swift was the best prose writer of the time. His 
last great work, written before his mind gave way in liis lonely 
Irish exile, was his Gullivers Travels (1726). The English philo- 
sophical tradition which John Locke had first firmly established 
in the age of the Revolution, was carried on stiU further by George 
Berkeley, bishop ' of Cloyne, and by David Hume, a Scotch Tory. 
Both Berkeley and Hume were eminent men of letters, besides being 
famous philosophers. One of the chief features of the eighteenth 
century was the growth of the novel out of the old romance, turned 
to describe real life. Daniel Defoe's BoUnson Crusoe^ (1719) 
prepared the way for the broad and genial works of Henry Fielding, 



638 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY [17E4- 

the sentimental and pathetic writings of Samuel E.icliardson, the 
rough hut vigorous painting of manners of Tobias Smollett, 
the quaint humour of Lawrence Sterne, and Oliver Groldsmith's 
charming idyll, the Vicar of WaJcefield. Samuel Johnson, poet, 
essayist, moralist, critic, and writer of an English Dictionary, was 
the centre of the literary life of more than one generation so 
vividly pictured for us in Boswell's matchless Life of Johnson. 
History lost in accuracy and depth what it gained in art in David 
Hume's History of England, and combined a scholarship that has 
seldom been overthrown with the stateliest, most artificial of styles 
in Edmund Gribbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 
(1776), the one historical work of the age which retains permanent 
value. The eighteenth century took little interest in history, and 
alone of his age Edmund Burke knew how deep the roots of the 
present lie in the past. Burke was not only the wisest of the 
political thinkers of the period, but one of the greatest and richest 
writers of prose that English literature has ever known. 

18. A revolution came over English literature after the 
middle of the century. The style and subject of poetry equally 

changed. The way of writing became more varied 
tic revival ~ ^^^ natural, and bit by bit the bondage of the heroic 

couplet was shaken off. Writers again began to revel 
in country life and beautiful scenery, and mountains, hitherto 
objects of horror, were described with enthusiasm and sympathy. 
Their view of man became enlarged, and they went through the 
conventionalities of society down to the elemental passions of the 
human heart. Heralded by the revived study of the romantic past, 
through the means of such books as Bishop Percy's Beliques of 
Ancient English Poetry (1765), and by such precursors as James 
Thomson, the poet of the Seasons (1730), the new spirit took 
different shapes in the lyrics and satires of Robert Burns, the 
Ayrshire farmer; the delicate humour of William Cowper; the 
realistic pictures of Suffolk village life of George Crabbe ; the strange 
prophetic vision of William Blake, and the stirring romances 
and tales in verse of the Edinburgh lawyer. Sir Walter Scott. 
Towards the end of the century it came to a head in the so- 
called Lahe School, headed by William Wordsworth (1770-1850), 
the lofty singer of nature, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a subtle 
poet and a mystic thinker. Fear of the Erench Revolution soon 
turned these writers from fervid dreams of a coming era of peace 
and truth into sympathy with old ways. And soon the very 
bigotry of the reaction drove younger men, and notably George 



■l820.] 



THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 



639 



Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824), tlie greatest poetical force of iiis 
day, into fierce denunciations of tlie tyranny of cant and custom. 
To this day the verse of the whole civilized world shows clearly 
the effects of Byron's spirit. Side by side with him as a hard 
of revolution stood Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), the most 
musical and imaginative of poets. Alongside them wrote John 
Keats (1795-1821), cut off before his rare genius had wholly 
ripened. His career marks the exhaustion of the impulse which 
began with Burns and Cowper, and which had now filled all Britain 
with singers. Their work showed that the age of aristocracy was 
nearly over, and ushers in the democratic England, whose faint 
beginnings are to be found in the years which follow Waterloo. 



Books recommended for the Further Study of the Period 

1714-1820 
Of the larger works, Stanhope's History of England, 1715-1783 (7 vols.), 
careful, but rather dull ; Lecky's interesting though rather discursive History 
of England in the Eighteenth Century (8 vols.), which is especially detailed 
when dealing with the history of Ireland ; and Massey's History of England 
in the Reign of George III. (4 vols.). Suggestive phases of history are 
illustrated by Seeley's Expansion of England, and Captain Mahan's Influence 
of Sea Power on History. Short books on persons of importance include J. 
Morley's Walpole ; F. Harrison's Chatham ; and Lord Rosebery's Pitt (all in 
" Twelve English Statesmen " series) ; Macaulay's Essays on Chatham, Clive, 
and Warren Hastings ; Morley's Bu7-he ; Sir C. Wilson's Clive ; Sir A. Lyall's 
Warren Hastings; Sir G. 0. Trevelyan's Early Life of C. J. Fox ; G. Hoopers 
Wellington (" Men of Action" series) ; and Mahan's Life of Nelson. Sir W. 
Napier's History of the Peninsular War is elaborate ; some of his best battle 
pictures are extracted in his one- volume Battles and Sieges of the Peninsula; 
Longmans' Political History of England, vol. ix., 1702-1760, by I. S. Leadam, 
vol. X., 1760-1801, by W." Hunt, and vol. xi., 1801-1837, by Brodrick and 
Fotheringham, cover the period. For the social and economic aspects of 
history, see A. Toynbee's Industrial Revolution ; W. Cunningham's Growth of 
English Industry and Commeoxe, vol. ii., book xiii. ; and Social England^ 
vol. v., bj' various writers. 

GENEALOGY OF THE PITTS AND GRENVILLES 
Hester, Countess Temple m. Richard Grenville 



"William Pitt, m. Hester Grenville 
Lord Chatham 



Richard, 

Earl Temple, 

d. 1779. 



George Grenville, 

prime minister 

1763-1765, 

d. 1770. 



I 

John, 
earl of Chatham, 

general at 
Walcheren, 1809. 



William Pitt, 

prime minister^ 

1783-1801, 

1804-1806. 



George, William, Lord GreE- \^ 

Earl Temple, ville, prime minister 
d. 1813. 1806-1807, 

d. 1834. 



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BOOK VIII 

NATIONALITY AND DEMOCRACY (1820-1901) 

CHAPTER I 
GEORGE IV. (1820-1830) 

Chief Dates : 

1820. Accession of George iv. 

1822. Canningites admitted to office. 

1827. Death of Canning and battle of Navarino. 

1828. Repeal of Test and Corporation Acts. 

1829. Catholic Emancipation Act. 

1830. Death of George iv. 

1. The death of George iii. led only to nominal changes. The 
prince regent became G-eorge iv. He was vain, seMsh, pleasure- 
Accession of lo^i^g"' ^^<i i^®- ^^ ^^^ liked or respected him either 
Geopge IV., as regent or king. After his accession he made an 
1 ^20. attempt to win popularity Tby visiting Scotland, Ireland, 

and Hanover, and was wonderfully well received, though his 
behaviour, " like a popular candidate on an election trip," disgusted 
right-thinking men. His health soon declined, and he soon shut 
himself up at Windsor and Brighton, a peevish, whimsical, selfish 
recluse, with few friends and little influence. 

2. In 1795 G-eorge had married Caroline of Brunswick, but 
they soon quarrelled and were separated, and of late years she had 
lived abroad. Their only child, the Princess Charlotte, died in 
1817, so that the next heir to the throne became George's sailor 
brother, William, duke of Clarence. After George's accession 
Caroline came back to England, and demanded recognition as 
queen. George, who hated his wife, wished to obtain a divorce 
from her, and was still strong enough to be able to compel his 
reluctant ministers to bring forward a bill in the House of Lords 
to dissolve the marriage. The evidence was not creditable to 
642 



i820.] GEORGE IV. 643 

Caroline, but public feeling- rose high that so bad a husband as 
George should venture to complain of his wife's conduct. The 
opposition took up her cause, and Caroline became rp^ . . . 
very popular. So strong was the sympathy she ex- of Queen 
cited that the ministers barely succeeded in carrying- Caroline, 

1820 

the divorce bill through the Lords, and dared not intro- 
duce it into the House of Commons. Before long, however, the 
queen lost her hold on the people's goodwill, and next year she died. 
The main result of the scandal excited by her trial was to deprive 
the king of his last hold over his subjects. 

3. The Tory ministry continued as before. Soon after G-eorge's 
accession a plot was formed by Arthur Thistlewood to murder 
the whole cabinet. The conspiracy was called the jj^ ^^ 
Cato Street Conspiracy, because Thistlewood and Street 

his friends held their meetings in a loft in Cato Conspiracy, 
Street, London. A comrade betrayed their plans, 
and Thistlewood and others were executed. Public horror 
at Tliistlewood's dastardly attempt did something to revive the 
waning popularity of the government, but the ministers were 
divided among themselves, and all the tact of Liverpool, the prime 
minister, could not keep the government together. It suffered a 
great loss when the brilliant and eloquent George Canning, the 
chief of Pitt's personal followers, resig-ned office rather than support 
the bill against Queen Caroline. It finally collapsed when Lord 
Londonderry, the ablest of the old Tories, committed suicide in 
1822. 

4. Londonderry, formerly known as Lord Castlereagh, had 
been regarded, not very fairly, as the chief representative of the 
reactionary Toryism which had been dominant for x^e old and 
many years. This was the party which still lived the new 

in constant fear of the French Revolution, and ^^^^^' 
opposed all great changes in the belief that any real reform would 
pave the way for revolution. There was, however, a more liberal 
section of the Tory party, of whom Canning was the most im- 
portant. Like Pitt, the Canningites were strongly in favour of 
Catholic emancipation, and thought that the death of the old king 
made it easy to raise the Catholic question once more. On many 
subjects they held more liberal views than the Whig opposition, 
and they differed mainly from the Whigs because they were 
opposed to the reform of parliament. In this they were less wise 
than Pitt, who had favoured parliamentary reform long before the 
Whigs had taken it up. The Whigs, however, were weak in 



644 GEORGE IV. [1822- 

parliament, and not mncli liked out-of-doors. Their leader was 
now Earl Grey, a proud and dignified aristocrat, whose chief merit 
was that he had first thoroughly identified his party with the 
cause of parliamentary reform. In the House of Commons the 
most prominent of the Whigs was Henry Brougham, a vain,, 
versatile, and pushing lawyer, and Lord John Russell, a younger 
son of the duke of Bedford. There was no thought, however, of 
admitting the Whigs to office. 

5. After Londonderry's death, Liverpool saw that he must 
either reorganize his government or resign; his remedy was 

to offer office to the Canningites. Canning became 
ningites" foreign secretary and leader of the House of Commons, 
admitted His friend Huskisson was president of the Board of 
182?^^' Trade, and the Marquis Wellesley, Wellington's elder 

brother, lord-Ueutenant of Ireland, At the same 
time Robert Peel, the only rising man of ability among the 
old Tories, became home secretary. He was the son of a rich 
Lancashire baronet, and represented the new aristocracy which 
had made fortunes by trade. Under the influence of these men 
a new spirit was given to the government. Between 1822 and 
1827 a series of great administrative and legislative changes showed 
that the earlier and wiser policy of Pitt had once more taken 
possession of the Tory leaders. 

6. Canning made his personal influence felt mainly in foreign 
policy. Since 1815 the kings and emperors who had controlled 
Canning's ^^ European settlement at the Congress of Yienna 
foreign had acted together in order to put down revolutionary 
policy. Q^ reforming movements. Prominent among these 
were the emperors of Austria and Russia and the king of Prussia^ 
Their league was commonly called the ILolij Alliance, and they 
sought to control all Europe by means of general congresses. Their 
policy was very unpopular, and revolt after revolt broke out against 
their harsh and despotic rule. In Spain, Portugal, and Naples the 
people rebelled, and set up liberal constitution^. The Spanish and 
Portuguese colonies in South America rose against the narrow and 
oppressive rule of their mother countries, and, in the East, the G-reeks 
raised an insurrection against the hateful tyranny of the Turks. 

7. The despots of the Holy Alliance declared that reforms in 

states ought to spring from the kings alone, and they 
AmanS ^^^^ Austrian troops to restore despotism in I^aples, 

and a French army to put down the new constitution 
in Spain. England at no time approved of these proceedings. 



-1824.] GEORGE IV, 645 

Even Castlereagh refused to have anything to do with the Holy 
Alliance, and protested against foreign intervention in Spain and 
Naples, maintaining that each nation ought to manage its own 
affairs. But Castlereagh was anxious to be on good terms with 
the leading powers of the alliance, and was known to disKke 
revolutions. He therefore contented himself with secret protests, 
and was denounced in England for sympathizing with a policy 
which he was trying to prevent being carried out. Canning's 
position was not in essence very different from that of Castlereagh . 
He made it, however, his business to emphasize the deep gulf 
that existed between the attitude of England and that of the Holy 
Alliance. Though he took no steps to help the constitutionalists 
in Naples and Spain, he publicly emphasized his favourite doctrine 
of the non-intervention of one nation in the internal affairs of 
another. He had his revenge when he recognized 
the freedom of the Spanish colonies in South America. ^^ ^^^ 
" I resolved,"' he declared, " that if France had Spain, Spanish 
it should not be Spain with the Indies. I called ^^^"^l^^^^ 
the New World into existence to redress the balance doctrine, 
of the Old." In helping forward the independence 
of the South American states, Canning worked along with the 
United States of America, and it was with his approval that 
the American president Monroe laid down the famous Monroe 
doctrine, that the United States would not allow either North or 
South America to serve as fields for European colonization or inter- 
vention. When the restored despot of Spain sought to put down 
constitutional government in Portugal, Canning resolved to inter- 
fere. Afraid of provoking war with England, the Spaniards 
withdrew from Portugal, and Canning's vigour secured the con- 
tinuance of constitutional rule in that country. 

8. Canning warmly shared in the widespread sympathy for 
the Greeks, who were waging an heroic struggle for freedom 
against Turkey. Many prominent Englishmen went canning 
to Greece and fought against the Turks, among them and Greek 
being the famous poet. Lord Byron, who was carried J,g^"rj^ 
off by fever in 1824. The Russians were also strongly 
in favour of the Greeks, and so, though supporting the Holy 
Alliance in the West, they made themselves the accompKces of 
rebellion in the East. Many in England declared that Russia's 
interest in Greece was due to her wish to extend her power on the 
ruins of the Turkish Empire. They therefore maintained that 
the Turks ought to be supported as the surest means of checking 



646 GEORGE IV. [1825- 

Russian aggrandisement. Canning, however, saw that the best 
way to help the G-reeks was to work along with Russia. In 1827 
he made a treaty with Nicholas i., who had succeeded Alexander 
as tsar in 1825. By this treaty England, Russia, and France 
pledged themselves to mediate between the Turks and the Greeks, 
and insisted upon an immediate truce. The powers declared 
that they did not intend to break off their friendship with the 
Turks, but instructed their admirals in the Mediterranean to 
enforce the armistice. In October, 1827, the Turkish fleet lay 
anchored in the Bay of Navarino, on the west coast of the Pelo- 
Battleof ponnesus. English, French, and Russian squadrons 
Navapino, took up their station off Navarino and persuaded the 
1827. Turkish commander to accept a truce. Despite this, 

the Turks continued to devastate the Peloponnesus with fire and 
sword. Thereupon the allied admirals, disgusted at these atrocities, 
entered Navarino Bay to secure the enforcement of the truce. 
Almost by chance the Turks fired on an English sliip, and brought 
about a general action. In this the Turkish fleet was altogether 
destroyed, and the victory made Greek independence possible. 
Canning was, however, already in his grave. He had restored 
England's reputation abroad as the friend of freedom and national 
rights, and had maintained his policy of non-intervention against 
the combined powers of the Holy Alliance. 

9. The changes in home policy brought about by Canning's 
preponderance were even greater than the alteration of English 

,, _ policy abroad. Peel, the home secretary, though an 
forms as enemy to all changes in the constitution, was a first- 
home rate man of business. He had already made his mark 
seere ary. -^^ passing, in 1819, a law which provided for the 
resumption of cash payments by the Bank of England. He now 
took up the reform of the criminal law which had hitherto been 
extraordinarily severe. Men could be hanged for over two hundred 
offences, among which were such trifling matters as being found on 
the highway with a blackened face, injuring "Westminster bridge, 
or personating out-patients of Greenwich Hospital. The result was 
that juries refused to convict guilty persons when the punishment 
of so smaU a misdeed was so monstrous. By Peel's efforts laws were 
passed which abolished the death penalty for more than a hundred 
crimes. Even more important than Peel's legislation was the 
honesty and thoroughness with which he carried on the everyday 
administration of home affairs. As the result of his wise rule, 
the distrust which the poor had long felt for the government 
became greatly mitigated. 



-1828.] GEORGE IV. 6\'J 

10. Huskisson, tlie president of the Board of Trade, was 
deeply versed in all matters of finance and economics. Under his 
auspices the duties on many articles were reduced, 

and the acts making combination of workmen penal commepcial 
were repealed, so that trades unions became hence- and finan- 
forth lawful. Huskisson also broug-ht about great ^^^^ ^®" 
changes in the navigation acts, which, since the days 
of Charles 11., had insisted that goods imported into England 
should be brought in English ships or in ships of the country 
to which the goods belonged. Our commercial supremacy was 
now so assured that these acts were no longer necessary, and 
they had always produced difficulty in practice. Of late years 
some foreign countries, including the United States and Prussia, 
had refused to allow our ships to trade freely with them, because 
England would not permit their ships freedom of commerce with 
us. To avoid these troubles, Huskisson carried an act which 
allowed the government to make treaties with foreign powers to 
admit their ships to our harbours, in return for equal privileges 
for English traders. This was called the policy of reciprocity. 

11. Early in 1827 Lord Liverpool was smitten with apoplexy, 
and could no longer act as chief minister. It was as much as 
his tact could accomplish to keep the Canningites and c^nninff's 
the old Tories together. On his retirement the king ministry 
was forced to make Canning prime minister, where- and death, 
upon Wellington, Peel, and the old Tories, who had 

long looked upon Canning with disfavour, threw up their offices. 
Canning managed to form a government without them, but died six 
months later. He was the most brilliant statesman of his time, 
but has been attacked for ambition and want of seriousness. His 
flippancy was, however, always in his talk rather than in his mind. 
In his later years he nobly redeemed the mistakes of his early 
life, and Ms death removed England's greatest statesman. 

12. Canning was succeeded by Lord Goderich, who was too 
weak a man for his post. When news came of the battle of 
Navarino, Groderich did not know what to do. Tj,g Qo^e- 
The ministers quarrelled violently with each other, rich, 1827- 
and. after a short time, G-oderich resigned office, in ^^28, and 
January, 1828. The old Tories then came back to li^gton 
power. The duke of Wellington became prime ministries, 
minister, and Peel, who was again home secretary, be- 1828-1830. 
came leader of the House of Commons. Most of the Canningites, 
including Huskisson, agreed to contiivue in office, but, after a few 



648 GEORGE IV. [1823- 

montlis, they resigned, so that the old Tories had everything in 
their own hands. "■ 

13. The Catholic question now came to a crisis. All the 
leading politicians, except the high Tories, had long been in favour 

of Catholic Emancipation, and several bills to give the 
Association Catholics votes had passed the House of Commons, 
and the i^^t had been rejected by the Lords. Since 1823 a 

elecUon vigorous movement in its favour had been started in 

Ireland. The leader of this was Daniel O'Connell, 
the greatest of Irish agitators, a Catholic of good family, a leader 
at the Irish bar, a speaker with wonderful power of stirring the 
emotions and ruling the hearts of his people, brilliant and incisive, 
though coarse and not over-scrupulous. O'Connell soon became 
complete master of Ireland. He formed a Catholic Association, 
which at once became a great power. He set his face against aU 
crime and outrage, and the agitation was the more impressive 
from its orderly character. So formidable did the Catholic Asso- 
ciation seem that in 1825 it was dissolved by act of parlia- 
ment. But a new society was at once started to do its work, 
and the movement went on much as before. Under O'Connell's 
guidance the small Irish voters, who had hitherto always voted for 
the candidates supported by the great landlords, began to vote 
for men of their own way of thinking. In 1828 O'Connell himself 
became a candidate for County Clare against Yesey Fitzgerald, 
a popular Irish landlord, and a friend of the Catholic claims. He 
was returned with a huge majority, though, as a Catholic, he could 
not hold his seat. His election created such excitement in Ireland 
that it seemed as if civil war was likely to break out between the 
Catholics and Protestants. 

14. Since the expulsion of the Canningites the majority of the 
government belonged to that section of the Tories which had 
Catholic always resisted the Catholic claims. Both Wellington 
emanclpa- and Peel had been conspicuous upholders of the 
tion, 829. existing system. But, though slow to see the necessity 
of change, both were open-minded and sensible. The course of 
events in Ireland gradually convinced them that even Protestant 
ascendency might be upheld at too high a cost. Already, in 1828, 
they had allowed a biU to pass for the repeal of the Test and 
Corporation Acts, which, though for a century never carried out, 
still delighted the bigots by their presence in the statute-book. 
In 1829 Peel and Wellington brought in a bill to admit the 
Catholics to parliament, though they proposed that, as a safeguard. 



-1830.] GEORGE IV. 649 

the francliise in Ireland should be raised, so as to exclude from 
voting- the poverty-stricken small farmers who had returned 
O'Connell for Clare. The high Tories were bitterly disgusted, 
and complained that their leaders had betrayed them. Neverthe- 
less, the bill easily got through parliament, and " the only hope of 
the Protestants lay with the king." For a time George blustered, 
and declared that he would rather lay his head on the block than 
yield. But he had neither courage nor constancy, and quickly 
gave way. O'Connell, not allowed to sit for Clare without a fresh 
election, was returned without opposition, and took his seat. 
Flushed with this triumph, he started a new agitation for the 
repeal of the Union. 

15. Though forced against his will to carry through Canning's 
policy in the matter of Catholic emancipation, "Wellington did his 
best to reverse Canning's ideas with regard to foreign wellinff- 
affairs. The king's speech lamented the battle of ton's 
Navarino as an " untoward event," and spoke of foreign 
Turkey as an ancient ally. It was impossible now 
to put down the Greeks altogether, but Wellington sought to Kmit 
the Greek state to the Peloponnesus. Russia profited by Eng- 
land's weakness to take up the cause of the Christian subjects 
of the Turks. In 1829 she went to war with the Turks, and 
secured larger though still scanty limits for Greece at the point 
of the sword. When Dom Miguel, the absolutist champion in 
Portugal, overthrew the constitution and made himself king, 
Wellington resolved " that no revolutionary action should come from 
England," and took up a neutral attitude. He was friendly with 
the bigoted Charles x., who, after his brother Louis xviii.'s death, 
became king of France in 1824. He was looked upon as the great 
upholder of absolutism throughout aU Europe. In strong contrast 
to his colleague's action, Peel continued his useful Death of 
reforms at home. In 1829 he set up a new 'police George IV., 
system, which established the trained and effective 
police force which we stiU have. Peel and Wellington were stiU 
in power when George iv. died on June 26, 1830. 



Z.2 



CHAPTER II 
WILLIAM IV. (1830-1837) 

Chief Dates : 

1830. Accession of "William iv. ; Grey's Whig Ministry. 

1832. The Reform Act. 

1833. Slavery abolished. 

1835. Municipal Corporations Reform Act. 
1837. Death of William iv. 

1. The two cMef political forces of the nineteenth, century were 
democracy and nationality. The former began with the French 
Democraev Revolution, and the latter became strong when the 
and nations of Europe rose in revolt against Napoleon's 

nationality, attempt to establish universal monarchy. The reaction 
after 1815 proved nearly fatal to both, and the despots of the Holy 
Alliance strove to put down nationality and democracy as fatal to 
order, property, monarchy, and religion. England never sympathized 
altogether with this reactionary policy, though she allied herself 
with its exponents, and for long protested against it with little 
energy. It was the work of Canning to reassert the ideal of 
nationality, while even Tories like Peel and Wellington showed 
their appreciation of the' force of democracy by their surrender on 
the Catholic question. Thus the reign of Greorge iv. marked the 
first faint breaking away of Britain from the old tradition, and the 
beginnings of the movements which gathered increasing force in 
the times that we have still to traverse. 

2. Even on the continent the wave of reaction was coming to an 
end. The liberals, as the enemies of the system of the restored 
despots were called, were now strong enough to make 
tinental their influence felt, and the year 1830 was a year of 

revolutions revolution all over the West. It witnessed the over- 
01 1830. throw of Charles x., the "bigoted king of France, and 

the setting up in his place of a constitutional monarch of the 
English pattern in Louis Philippe, duke of Orleans, and now king 
of the French. It saw Germany and Italy make fresh though futile 
650 



1830.] WILLIAM IV. 65 1 

attempts to shake off obedience to their petty monarclis. It was 
famous for the revolt of the Catholics of the Southern Netherlands 
from the Protestant Dutch, with whom the Congress of Vienna 
had united them. Henceforth the king of the ^Netherlands ruled 
over the north only, while the south, the old Austrian ^Netherlands, 
became the constitutional kingdom of Belgium, under the rule of 
Leopold of Saxony- Coburg, the widower of the Princess Charlotte. 

3. In Britain the liberal movement on the continent took the 
form of an agitation in favour of parliamentary reform. Welling- 
ton set liis face against it, and declared that our system 

of election was so perfect that if he had to invent a tion for 
new one he could not have devised a scheme better parlia- 
able to fulfil its purpose. Thus he irritated the JI^formT 
reformers after having akeady aKenated the old Tories 
by his change of front on the Catholic question. The completeness 
of his isolation was seen when the general election which followed 
George iv.'s death destroyed his majority and compelled him to 
send in his resignation. 

4. William iv., the new king, was a very ordinary person. He 
was eccentric in language and conduct, and was so excited at being 
a king that he behaved in a very strange fashion. He w-ivq^ jy 
was, however, good-natured, kind-hearted, and well- and the Grey 
meaning, and his conduct was generally straight- ministry, 
forward and honourable, if not always discreet or 
far-seeing. His affability and simplicity made him popular, and he 
was thought to be a reformer. When the Wellington- Peel ministry 
fell, William gave the office of prime minister to Earl Grrey, the 
Whig leader, who formed a strong reforming ministry from the 
Whigs and the Canningites. Brougham became chancellor and a 
baron, wliile Lord Althorp, son of Lord Spencer, led the House of 
Commons with great tact and good sense. The Canningites, who 
had now lost their master's dread of parliamentary reform, mustered 
strongly. Among them were the foreign secretary. Viscount 
Palmerston, an Irish peer, and Lord Melbourne, both of whom 
afterwards became chief ministers. Thus when, after twenty-three 
years of exclusion from power, the Whigs ag*ain entered office, they 
absorbed into their body the best element among their Tory rivals. 
The new ministry at once prepared a bill for reform of parliament. 

5. Since the days of the two Pitts it had been felt by the wisest 
Englishmen that the traditional method of choosing members of 
parliament was unsatisfactory. The system of election and the dis- 
tribution of members had not been altered for hundreds of years, 



652 WILLIAM IV. [1830- 

and the great cliaiiges brought about by the Industrial Revolutioiij 

and the growth of the factory districts in the north, had shown 

„, , conclusively the small extent to which the House of 

The neod. 

for pap- Commons represented the people. Each county of 

liamentapy England and Ireland returned only two members. 
The greatest and richest shires, like Yorkshire or 
Lancashire, had no more representation than Rutland or Westmor- 
land. Many great towns, such as Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, and 
Birmingham, returned no members at all, while in London the 
populous new suburbs had no voice in parKament, electoral rights 
being limited to those dwelling within the narrow limits of the 
cities of London and Westminster and the borough of Southwark. 
On the other hand, there were many towns, called rotten boroughs, 
which returned two members apiece, though they had hardly any 
inhabitants or electors. Conspicuous among these places were 
G-atton in Surrey, which was a gentleman's estate in a park, and 
Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, an ancient fortress on a hill, deserted 
since the thirteenth century for the new Salisbury which had 
grown up in the adjoining valley of the Avon. If things were 
not quite so bad in Ireland, it was because the Act of Union 
had given an opportunity of destroying many of the smallest Irish 
boroughs, while in Scotland the state of affairs was far worse than in 
England. Moreover, very few persons had votes at elections. In 
the counties only the freeholders could exercise the franchise, while 
many borough members were chosen by the town councils, which 
were close corporations filled up when vacancies arose by the voices 
of the surviving members. In Scotland there was a mere handful 
of persons qualified to vote for any constituency. The result of all 
this was that the House of Commons was controlled by the great 
landholders. This system not only excited the indignation of the 
poor ; the rich manufacturers and merchants of the new manu- 
facturing districts were particularly badly represented, and were 
indignant that their opinion should count for so much less than 
that of the landed classes. 

6. The French Revolution stayed, as we have seen, the reform 
agitation for a time, though the extreme party, called Radicals, 
_. „ never desisted in their demand for a thorough change 

movement in the representative system. Under George iv. the 
under cry for reform was taken up by the Whigs in parKa- 

ment, and a few feeble steps taken towards redressing 
some of the worst grievances. Two small boroughs were dis- 
•franchised for notorious corruption, but an effort made to transfer 



-1832.] WILLIAM IV. 653 

tlieir seats to Leeds and Birmingliam was defeated by tlie Tories 
insisting' that they slionld go to increase the number of county 
members. Even before the question become important in parlia- 
ment, it excited much strong feeling in the country, Reformers 
Unions, of which that at Birmingham was the most famous, were 
established ; and the agitation they stirred up affected even the 
existing constituencies, and helped to create the reforming majority 
which floated Grey into power. 

7. In March, 1831, Lord John Russell, a member of the Grey 
ministiy, laid a Reform Bill before the Commons. It passed its 
second reading by only one vote, and came to grief in 
committee. Parliament was dissolved, and returned struggle 
such a strong majority of reformers that Russell had ^^^ peform, 
no further difficulty in carrying his bill through the 

House of Commons. However, in October, 1831, a second biQ 
was rejected by the House of Lords. Thereupon riots broke out 
all over the country, which frightened the Lords into passing the 
second reading of a third biU in May, 1832, by a small majority. 
This did not, however, settle the matter, for the Lords in 
committee passed a resolution postponing the consideration of 
the disfranchising clauses. Regarding this as fatal to the bill. 
Grey asked William iv. to create enough new peers to secure its 
passing unaltered through the Lords, and, on the king's refusal, 
the ministry resigned office. Wellington boldly attempted to form 
another government, though the excitement out-of-doors was now 
terrible, and there was talk of stopping all supplies until the bill 
was passed. Wellington at last saw that reform was inevitable, 
like Catholic emancipation, and that he could not longer resist the 
people's will. As a soldier he did not care to hold an untenable 
position. He gave up his attempt to form a ministry, and persuaded 
so many of his followers to withdraw from the House of Lords that 
the biQ went through on June 4, 1832, by a considerable majority. 

8. By the Beform Act of 1832 all boroughs containing less than 
2000 inhabitants were entirely disfranchised, while boroughs with 
between 2000 and 4000 inhabitants were cut down to • 

one member. The seats thus set free were given to J^® ^^8^ 
the larger counties, which were broken up into two or 
even three divisions, and to the unrepresented towns, including 
Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, and several other large 
places, including new London boroughs, all of which had hence- 
forth two members each. Other smaller, but still considerable, 
places each returned one member. The county franchise was 



654 WILLIAM IV. [1833- 

enlarg-ed by adding copytolders, leaseholders, and £50 tenants at 
will to tlie freeholders, while the borough franchise was made 
uniform for the first time, and votes given to those occupying 
houses of £10 rateable value. The Tories rightly described the 
act as a revolution, though it was a long time before its full 
effects were felt. It dethroned the landed aristocracy, which since 
1688 had controlled the country, and transferred the balance of 
power to the middle classes, such as the farmers and shopkeepers. 
Few working-men got votes, so that the bill did not bring in 
democracy, though it prepared the way for it. 

9. The first reformed parliament met early id 1833, and was 
anxious to make more changes. The Tories were few in number, 
Irish Repeal ^^^ ^^® ministry had an enormous majority, though 
and the some of its nominal supporters were discontented 
Tithe Wap. Radicals, who disliked the narrowness and aristocratic 
bias of the Whigs, and nearly haM the Irish members were Repealers, 
or followers of O'Connell. They were, however, all in agreement 
with the ministers in supplementing' the Heform Act by other new 
laws, though there were fierce disputes as to how far each measure 
should go. There was much trouble in Ireland where O'Connell's 
repeal agitation was complicated by what was called the Tithe War. 
This was caused by the refusal of the Catholic peasants to pay any 
longer for the support of the Protestant Church, and filled all 
Ireland with outrages. The government put down disorder with 
a strong hand, cut down some of the worst abuses in the Irish Church, 
and finally, passed an Irish Tithe Commutation Act, which turned 
the tithe of a tenth of the produce into a fixed rent- charge. Even 
earlier than that, a new law commuted English tithes also into 
a rent- charge fixed by the price of corn. 

10. The reforming parliament was strongly opposed to slavery, 
and in 1833 passed the Emancipation Act, which set free all slaves 
Othep ^^ ^^® British Empire, and awarded the planters 
pefopms, £20,000,000 as compensation. In 1834 it passed the 
1832-1835. JVew Poor Law, which put an end to the degrading 
system of doles from the parish in aid of wages, and improved the 
administration of the poor law by establishing unions of several 
parishes, governed by popularly elected guardians of the poor. In 
the long run, this measure probably did more to improve the 
condition of the people than any other single law of the time, but 
at first the change caused much hardship to those who had acquired 
the habit of looking to the rates for support. In 1835 a further 
great change was made by the Municipal Corporations Reform Act, 



..1834] WILLIAM IV, 655 

wliicli did for the local parUaments of tke boroughs what the 
Reform Bill had done for the parHament of Westminster. Up to 
Qow corporations had been mostly self-appointed, and were often 
scandalously corrupt. They were now superseded by town councils 
chosen by the people, except that a third of them consisted of 
aldermen, elected, like the mayor, by the councillors themselves. 

11. Foreign policy during these years was controlled by Palmer- 
ston, who would not suffer the least interference from his colleagues. 
A disciple of Canning, Palmerston broke with the 
traditions of Wellington, though in his zeal for carry- ton's 

ing out his ends he sometimes lost sight of Canning's foreign 
doctrine of non-intervention. Whenever he interfered, ^^^' 
however, it was on the side of nationality and liberty. Thus he joined 
with Louis Philippe of France in winning the freedom of Belgium, 
helped the constitutional queen of Portugal to win a final triumph 
over her uncle, Dom Miguel, and in similar fashion backed up 
Queen Isabella of Spain, the young daughter and successor of King 
Ferdinand, who had to fight for her throne against her uncle, Don 
Carlos, who claimed the inheritance as the nearest male heir, and 
aimed at setting up a despotism. Pahnerston was less successful 
in the East, where the principles of the Holy Alliance were still in 
the ascendency. 

12. After a few years the energy of the reforming government 
wore itself out. It was never successful in administration, and 
failed altogether in finance. In the cabinet the Radicals _. „ 
quarrelled with the aristocratic Whigs, while some of bourne 

the more conservative ministers resigned in disgust, rninistpy, 
because they thought that some of Grey's proposals 
went too far. In 1834 Lord Grey left of&ce, and Lord Melbourne 
became prime minister. He was learned, clever, and liberal- 
minded, but was wanting in seriousness, resolution, and firmness. 
His chief object was to keep his party together, and maintain it in 
place against the ever-rising tide of opposition. 

13. As the Whigs lost ground, the Tories once more became 
powerful. Old Toryism of the type of Castlereagh and Wellington 
was kiUed by the E-eform Act, but Peel (Sir Hobert ^^^ ^^^ 
since 1830) was still to be reckoned with. Distrusted the Con- 
by his followers because of the part he took in emanci- servative 
pating the Roman Catholics, Peel gradually won back P^^^^' 
their allegiance by qualities that raised him head and shoulders 
above every other member of the House of Commons. His cold 
manner, shyness, and want of enthusiasm prevented him from 



656 WILLIAM IV. [1837. 

being personally popular, but bis honesty and public spirit, bis tact, 
promptitude, and judgment, and bis deep insigbt into public 
opinion, won bim universal respect. Sensible men, tired of tbe 
weakness and narrowness of tbe Wbigs, looked up to bim with ever 
increasing attention. Peel knew that the British middle classes 
were no revolutionists, and set about forming a new party adapted 
to the new state of things. He offered a programme of good 
government, sound finance, moderate reform, and the preservation 
of the existing constitution in Church and state. Dropping the 
discredited name of Tory, bis followers called themselves Conserva- 
tives. An enemy bitterly described them as " Tory men with Whig 
measures," but their policy soon became popular with the new 
constituencies. Moreover, William iv. was altogether tired of 
the Whigs. In November, 1834, he suddenly dismissed Melbourne 
from office, and called upon Peel to form a new ministry. Peel 
boldly accepted the task, and, as he was in a hopeless minority in 
the House of Commons, he called together a new parliament. The 
Death of Conservatives gained enormously at the elections, but 
William IV., not enough to enable them to retain their places. 
1837. Accordingly Peel was forced to resign in April, 1835. 

Melbourne and the Whigs came back to office, and remained in 
place rather than in power till the old king's death in June, 1837. 



CHAPTER III 

VICTORIA— PEEL AND PALMERSTON 

(1837-1865) 

Chief Dates : 

1837. Accession of Victoria. 

1839. Penny Postage introduced. 

1841. Peel's Ministry. 

1846. Repeal of the tlorn Laws ; Russell's Ministty. 

1847. The Irish famine. 

1848. Revolutions in Europe ; failure of the Chartists, 

1852. Derby-Disraeli Ministry. 

1853. Aberdeen Coalition Ministry. 

1854. Outbreak of Crimean War. 

1855. Palmerston's Ministry. 

1856. Peace of Paris. 

1857. Chinese War. 

1859. Palmerston's second ministry. 
1861. American Civil War. 
1865. Death of .Palmerston. 

1. As William iv. and Queen Adelaide left no children, the throne 
devolved on their niece Victoria, the only child of Edward, dnke of 
Kent, and his wife, Victoria of Saxony- Coburg-, sister separation 
of Leopold, king" of the Belgians. An immediate result of England 
of the accession of a queen to the English throne was ^^ 
the separation of the throne of Hanover from that 
of the United Kingdom. As women were not eligible to reign in 
Hanover, Ernest, duke of Cumberland, the most unpopular of 
George iii.'s sons, became king of that coimtry, which henceforth 
pursued a separate course of history until its absorption in Prussia 
in 1866. 

2. The new queen was only eighteen years old, and had been 
brought up so quietly by her mother that few people ^^^^^ 
knew much about her. She showed from the first victopia 
great calmness and self-possession as well as rare ^"^p^^^"^^® 
courage and discretion. At first she depended very 
much upon Lord Melbourne, who took the utmost pains to instruct 

657 



658 VICTORIA — PEEL AND PALMERSTON [1837- 

her in politics. But Melbourne was not a strong minister, and 
there was some danger lest Ms iinpopidarity should be extended to 
the mistress who trusted him. Even if Melbourne had been better 
fitted for this work, there were grave inconveniences in the queen 
being advised by the leader of one of the two rival parties in the 
state. Luckily this was removed when Yictoria married, in 1840, 
her first cousin, Albert, duke of Saxony- Coburg Grotha. Albert was 
called the Frince Consort, and though even younger than the 
queen, proved from the first a wise, prudent, and unselfish adviser, 
honestly and modestly striving to do his duty, while keeping in the 
backgroujid to avoid jealousy. Stiff in his ways, and German 
rather than English in character, he was not very popular at first, 
but the more he was known the better he was liked. HimseK 
learning much from Melbourne, he saved the queen from too great 
dependence on a falling ministry. 

3. Prince Albert and the queen worked in absolute agreement 
with each other. He taught her that " if monarchy was to rise in 
The changed P^P^a^%' it was only by the monarch Kving a good 
conception life? and keeping quite aloof from party." With 
of the work great tact he brought the monarchy into touch with 
apchy and ^^ state of things brought about by the Hef orm Bill. 
House of He did for the crown what Wellington did for the 
Lords. House of Lords. Just as the duke saw that the 

Lords must give up setting themselves against the national will 
strongly expressed, so did the prince see that the crown could no 
longer exercise those legal rights for which G-eorge iii. had fought 
so manfully. Like the Lords, the crown now became a checking 
and regulating rather than a moving force. It remained as the 
symbol of the unity of the nation and the empire, and did good 
work in tempering the evils of absolute party government. Though 
most of the royal prerogatives which survived were henceforward 
carried out by ministers, the royal influence continued considerable 
in every department of the state. At no time during her long reign 
did Yictoria hesitate to take up a strong line of her own. The 
times were critical, and the condition of politics changed rapidly. 
The tendencies towards nationality and democracy, of which we 
have spoken, exercised a steadily increasing force. The effects 
of the Reform BiH were gradually worked out, and two other 
reform acts made the government more and more dependent upon 
the people, ujitil at last nearly every male had a voice in the 
government of the country. It is in no small measure due to the 
wisdom of Prince Albert and the devotion of the queen that 



-1 839-] VICTORIA— PEEL AND PALMERSTON 659 

the monarcliy became more popular and useful tlian it had been for 
a long time. 

4. In the early years of Victoria's reig-n the state of the country 
vras unsatisfactory. Ireland was still demanding* the repeal of the 
Union. The Whig* government would not agree to _ . ,. 
this, but was obKged to conciliate O'Connell and his and 
followers, since it required their votes ^ in the Com- Chartism, 
mons to keep the ministry in office. Some substantial improve- 
ments were effected in the state of Ireland, notably by passing' an 
Irish poor law and by the abandonment of the worst of the 
traditions of the old Protestant and landlord ascendency party.. 
So far was Irish agitation stayed that the outlook in England 
became almost more alarming than in Ireland. Working-men 
found that they were no better off after the Reform BiU than 
before it. Wages were low, and the price of bread was kept very 
high by the corn law, which prevented wheat being brought into 
the country because of the heavy duty imposed upon it. Popular 
discontent found its expression in the plans of the brilliant 
Welshman, Robert Owen, to reorganize society on the basis of 
Socialism, and came to a head in the Chartist Movement. This 
began in 1838, when William Lovett, a thoughtful London 
mechanic, started an agitation for what was called the jpeople's 
charter^ which laid down five points for which the Chartists were 
to agitate. These were universal suffrage, vote by ballot, annual 
parliaments, the abolition of the property qualification for mem- 
bers of parliament, and the payment of members. In 1839, the 
extreme Chartists, called the Physical Force Party, drilled their 
followers, held great meetings, and organized, riots. The most 
formidable of these was at Newport, in Monmouthshire, but it was 
suppressed without great difficulty. Before long the alarm which 
such acts of violence caused, and the divisions among the Chartists 
themselves, stayed the progress of the movement. For many years 
the Chartists were looked upon with great alarm, though most of 
the things they asked for have since been quietly granted. 

5. In distant parts of the empire there were almost as many 
troubles as at home. There was a dangerous war in India with 
the amir of Afghanistan. In Canada there was Melbourne's 
civil war between the English and French settlers, ministry, 
Melbourne had a difficult task in dealing with so 

much discontent. Weak as his government was, it effected some 
important reforms. Conspicuous among these was the introduction 
of Penny Postage within the British islands, a measure adopted in 



660 VICTORIA — PEEL AND PALMERSTON [1839- 

1839 at the suggestion of Rowland Hill. In the same year, how- 
ever, Melbourne's majority was reduced to five votes, and he gave 
up office. Peel refused to form a ministry unless the Whig ladies 
in the queen's household went out along with their husbands. The 
queen r/as very indignant at this, and restored the Whigs to power. 
For two more years her favour alone kept Melbourne 
servativ'e i^i place. In 1841 there was a general election, which 
^l^ction of gave the Conservatives a majority of ninety. After 
this, royal favour was useless to Melbourne, and Peel 
becg-me prime • minister. He formed a strong government, which 
remained in office until 1846. Though the queen received him 
very unwillingiy, she soon reconciled herself to her new advisers. 
It was the first sign that the monarchy was rising above party. 

6. Peel's cabinet aimed at peace and conciliation, both at home 
and abroad. Palmerston, Melbourne's foreign secretary, had gene- 
rally managed to get his own way in foreign affairs, 
policy of ^^^ ^® -^^^ taken up such a high line that he had more 
the Peel than once brought England to the verg-e of war. In 

1841-1&46 particular, Palmerston had quarrelled with France in 
1840, because he had resented the efforts of Louis 
Philippe to establish French influence in Egypt, and to encourage 
the warlike pasha of Egypt to conquer Syria from the Turks. 
Not only England, but Russia, Austria, and Prussia were alarmed 
at this aggression of the French. Accordingly, the four powers 
formed, in 1840, a Quadrwple Alliance, which checkmated the plans 
of the French, and restored Syria to the Turks. Palmerston 
believed that the Turks were capable of reforming their govern- 
ment and making Turkey a civilized state. His triumph gave the 
Turks time to show what they could do, but left France irritated 
and hostile to England. Lord Aberdeen, Peel's foreign minister, 
was much more anxious for peace than Palmerston. He restored 
friendly relations with France, and the good understanding between 
the two powers was increased by Victoria and Louis Philippe 
paying visits to each other. The friendship of the two countries 
was not, however, very deep, and Palmerston's suspicions of 
Louis Philippe were justified when fresh disputes arose on two 
occasions, in 1844 and 1846. Thus within six years England and 
France were thrice brought to the verg-e of war. Aberdeen's 
pacific policy was even more successful in determining our relations 
with the United States. In 1842 he made a treaty which settled 
the boundary between Canada and the state of Maine. A new 
boundary question, however, rose at once in the extreme nortli- 



-1846.] VICTORIA — PEEL AND PALMERSTON 66 1 

west. For a time tlie uncompromising' attitude of the Americans 
threatened war, but Aberdeen managed to renew negotiations, and 
the line between the American and British territories on the 
Pacific was settled by treaty in 1846. 

7. After the fall of the Whigs, O'Connell revived the repeal 
agitation. His efforts were strengthened by a new party which 
arose in Ireland in 1842. It was called the Young 

Ireland party, and was headed by a band of youthful {^^^a 
enthusiasts who sought to revive the memories of 
1798 and obtain repeal by force. Though wanting in balance and 
sound sense, the eloquence and passion of the Young Ireland 
leaders set all Ireland aglow. Though O'Connell was alarmed at 
their rashness, and discouraged their talk about rebellion, their 
influence revived the somewhat languishing agitation for repeal. 
Monster meetings were held all over Ireland, of which the most 
famous was at Tara, the old home of the Irish kings, where 
O'ConneU prophesied to a vast throng that a year would see the 
Irish parliament restored to Dublin. At last the government took 
the alarm, stopped the meetings, and arrested O'Connell. In 1844 
the Liberator, as O'Connell was called, was condemned for con- 
spiracy. Though the Lords reversed the sentence, O'Connell 
never recovered the blow inflicted on his prestige. Three years 
later he died on his way to Rome on a pilgrimage. 

8. Peel saw that the constant disturbances in Ireland shewed 
that something was radically wrong. He appointed a commission 
of inquiry, at the head of which was Lord Devon. i' t • h 
The report of this Devon Commission showed that the policy, 
land question was at the bottom of Irish grievances, 

and. by laying bare the condition of the peasants, and the scandals 
of the land system, marked the first effort of England to probe 
the sources of Irish discontent. Peel also sought to lessen the 
grievances of the Catholics by increasing the state grant to 
Maynooth College, where the Catholic clergy were educated, 
and by establishing Queen's Colleges at Belfast, Cork, and 
Galway, where the Catholic and Protestant youth of Ireland 
might receive, side by side, a secular education. The Maynooth 
grant lost Peel the support of the more bigoted Protestants, and 
Catholics and Protestants joined in denouncing the queen's 
colleges as godless. With all his wish to do right. Peel was 
too stiff and too English to understand the real needs of Ireland. 

9. Britain was still unrestful. In 1843 the Scottish Church 
was burst asunder by the secession of the Free Church, and in 



662 VICTORIA— PEEL AND PALMERSTON [1839- 

1845 came the crisis of the new High Chin-ch movement in 

England, when John Heniy Newman, its leader, became a Roman 

„, ^ Catholic. The Chartists again "became active, and 

The com " 

laws and there was still so much distress and discontent in 

popular ^Q country that they had a large following. One 

of the great sources of distress was the high 
price of hread which followed from the corn laws. Every 
year the population of England increased, owing to the growth 
of manufactures. It hecame yearly more impossible to feed the 
people with English corn alone, but the heavy duties imposed on 
foreign corn only allowed it to be brought into England when the 
price of wheat was very high. The consequence was that, whether 
the harvest was good or bad, the poor man had to pay heavily for 
the bread that he ate. This state of things was kept up in the 
interest of the landlords and farmers, who reaped a rich harvest at 
the price of the nation at large. So strong was the landed interest 
in parliament that neither Whigs nor Tories were willing to 
repeal the corn laws. Melbourne had done nothing to alter the 
bread tax while he was in power, but, on going out of office, had 
pledged his party to the policy of superseding the law by a 
moderate fixed duty on corn. Even this had alarmed the land- 
lords, and one element in giving Peel his great majority in 1841 
had been the conviction of the landed interests, that, if the corn 
laws were reduced or repealed, they would be ruined. Thus the 
Tory party was even more pledged to a policy of protection than 
the Whigs had been. 

10. In 1839, some north-country manufacturers had met in 
Manchester, and started the Anti- Corn-Law League, which 
TheAnti- demanded the total and immediate repeal of aU 
Copn-Law taxes on corn. Its leaders were Richard Cobden, 
i^R^Q^^' a Manchester calico-printer, of great earnestness, 

attractiveness, and power of persuasion, and John 
Bright, an eloquent Quaker manufacturer from Rochdale. The 
league at once began a new agitation. Meetings were held, 
pamphlets circulated, and large sums of money raised to carry 
on the propaganda. G-radually the league convinced many people 
that it was more important to g'ive many men cheap bread than to 
keep up the artificial prosperity of a single class of the nation. 

11. The greatest work of the league was the conversion of Peel 
liimself . He was, above all things, a practical man, an administrator, 
and a financier. In the earlier years of his government he had 
been especially successful in improving the state of trade, and putting 



'I846.] VICTORIA—PEEL AND PALMERSTON 66^ 

the national credit and finances into a creditable condition. Almost 
without knowing it, Peel was, like Huskisson, led by his finan- 
cial reforms in the direction of free trade. He 
had strong- sympathies with the manufacturing' Peel and 
class, from which he had sprung", and which was 
now decidedly against the corn laws. But his party was not 
with him. The landed interests thought their prosperity bound 
up with protection, and wished to keep up the taxes which made 
it hard for foreigners to compete with them. They soon began 
to murmur against Peel's free-trade budgets, and at last found a 
spokesman in Benjamin Disraeli, a brilliant and eccentric novelist 
of Jewish origin, who had made himself conspicuous as the leader 
of the fantastic Young England party, which had sought for some 
years to revive old-fashioned and romantic notions. Disraeli was 
not taken seriously, and Peel thoroughly distrusted and offended 
him. As a result, Disraeli declared in parliament " that protection 
was in the same condition as Protestantism in 1828," and held Peel 
to scorn for " catching the Whigs bathing and running away with 
their clothes." 

12. In 1845 the partial failure of the Irish potato crop brought 
matters to a crisis. Since the Union the population of Ireland 
had grown enormously, though there was no corre- _,, „ .. 
spending expansion in her industries. There were now of the Irish 
more inhabitants of Ireland than the country would Potato crop, 
feed, and the land laws made the people at the mercy 

of their landlords. In a large part of Ireland the soil was tilled 
by small farmers, who paid such high rents that they had very 
little left to live upon. They were, therefore, compelled to eat the 
cheapest possible food, and for this reason the greater part of the 
Irish peasantry subsisted almost entirely upon potatoes. A disease 
now broke out which made potatoes unfit for human consumption. 
The poor were plunged into great distress, and could only be kept 
from starvation by a large importation of corn. 

13. To bring in foreign grain was impossible so long as the 
corn law remained in operation. Accordingly Peel took the 
decisive step of telling his cabinet that the corn law x^e repeal 
must be relaxed forthwith to feed the starving Irish, of the corn 
and that when once this was done, no minister could ' 

ever venture to bring it back again. After some hesitation, a large 
section of the cabinet refused to support his proposal to abolish the 
bread tax, whereupon Peel resigned. Lord John Russell, the 
Whig leader, who had recently abandoned the doctrine of a 



664 VICTORIA — PEEL AND PALMERSTON [1846- 

moderate fixed duty, and now advocated total repeal, failed to 
form a ministry, and then Peel resumed ofB.ce. In January, 
1846, lie proposed to reduce the duty on corn to a nominal amount. 
The result was a break-up of the Conservative party. The greater 
part of it, henceforth known as the Protectionists, rose in open 
revolt against Peel, under Lord George Bentinck, a shrewd, hard, 
racing man, who hated Peel, and Benjamin Disraeli, who denounced 
Peel's change of front with pitiless cruelty. Peel could only carry 

the repeal of the hread tax with the help of the votes 
1846°^ ^®®^' of the Whigs. A Httle later the Protectionists had 

their revenge. Peel brought in a Coercion BiU to. 
put down disorder in Ireland, and the Protectionists joined with 
the Whigs in defeating it. Peel at once resigned. His great 
merits were his honesty and straightforwardness. Though he 
seldom took a broad and far-seeing view of a question, he always 
kept his mind open to facts, and whenever he saw that a thing 
was right, he declared for it. The reason which made him a bad 
party man made him a good practical statesman. 

14. For the next twenty years there were three parties in 
English politics. The smallest and least popular, but the ablest 

of these, was the little band of Peel's personal 
Peelites, followers, who followed liim in his change of front 

teetionists, in 1846. They were called the Peelites, and were 
Libepals, led, after Peel's sudden death in 1850, by Lord 
Radicals. Aberdeen. The most remarkable of the party was, 

however, William Ewart Grladstone, the son of a 
Liverpool merchant, whose ability, eloquence, and hig-h character 
had already marked him out for a great career. Next came the 
Protectionists, under Bentinck and Disraeli, who were joined by 
•the vigorous and energetic Lord Stanley, who deserted Peel in 
1845. The disunion of the Conservatives gave their opponents a 
stronger position in the House of Commons than the two parties 
combined. They were now more often called Liberals, from a 
word borrowed from continental politics, which suggested a 
broader and more democratic policy than the name Whig. But 
the Liberals were almost as much divided as the Conservatives. 
The ties of party sat very loosely on the Radicals and the Irish 
members. Among the former must be included the Manchester 
school, under Bright and Cobden, who, with much zeal for reform, 
honest indifference to cKque, and special knowledge of trading- 
questions, were ignorant and careless of foreign policy, and tied 
down by narrow notions of the business of the state, and by 



-1847-] VICTORIA—PEEL AND PALMERSTON 665 

middle- class prejudices, that made tliem oppose many measures for 
the welfare of the people. Despite all these drawbacks, the 
Liberals were nearly always in power, and only yielded up ofBce 
by reason of their own divisions. 

15. After Peel's fall, the prime ministership passed to Lord John 
E-ussell, a dexterous tactician and a consistent Whig, who had no 
great claim to the higher merits of statesmanship. His ^^^ ^^ jj 
influence was overshadowed by the dominating person- ministry, 
aUty of Palmerston, who resumed his post at the 1846-1852. 
foreign office, where he gained for the government most of the 
credit which it won. The bad feeling between these two weakened 
the ministry, which, however, remained in place until 1852. 

16. The first concern of the new government was Ireland, 
where the repeal of the corn laws had done little to remedy the 
distress produced by the failure of the potato crop. 

In 1846 the potato disease was much worse than in fam/ne^and 
1845, and a terrible famine feU upon the country, its eon- 
Soon the people were dying wholesale from want of ^tlfi^^oA?' 
food and from fevers caused by bad and insufficient 
nourishment. England was deeply moved by the tale of Irish 
suffering, but the government was ignorant and timid, and was 
afraid of the cry of the Radicals that state interference with the 
food supply was an inti'usion upon the work of the traders and 
against the doctrines of political economy. They therefore started 
relief works and paid the workers, but they left the food supply to 
the ordinary traders, who made disgraceful fortunes by speculating 
in Indian meal and flour. It was not until 1847 that the ministers 
were taug-ht by experience that the only way to keep the Irish alive 
was to distribute food to them. Gradually the harvests improved, 
but the condition of Ireland still remained very bad. Many land- 
lords were alnlost as unprosperous as their dependants. In their 
eagerness to make all they could out of their estates, they saw 
clearly that the system of small farms no longer paid them. They 
therefore turned out the poor tenants, and combined several little 
holdings into one large farm. The result of these clearances and 
evictions was an enormous and continued emigration, which in fifty 
years cut down the population of Ireland from eight millions to 
five. The emigrants, to America and the large towns of Britain 
could not but hand down to their children the fiercest hatred of the 
English name. This much good flowed from the Irish famine, that 
it put an end to the cottier system, which stood in the way of all real 
improvements. Save in the extreme west, where small holdings 



666 VICTORIA — PEEL AND PALMERS TON [184S- 

lingered on, those wlio were left in Ireland slowly became somewhat 
more prosperous. Yet the bringing in of Engiish ways and English 
capital made them as bitter as ever against the political system of 
the dominant country. 

17. In 1848 a general revolutionary movement upset half the 
thrones of Europe. Louis Philippe was driven from France and a 
The yeap of i^6pTiTt>lic set up. There were revolutions in nearly 
revolutions, every state of Germany and Italy, in which countries 
1848. ^YiQ national movement for winning unity under a 
single popular government took a strengthened hold upon the 
people. The Italians and Hungarians revolted against Austria ; 
the G-ermans assembled a national parliament at Frankfort. 

18. The revolutionary wave extended even to the United 
Kingdom. In England Chartism revived, while in Ireland the 

Young Ireland party sought to raise a rebellion. In 
and Young 1848 the Chartists summoned a great meeting on 
Ireland, Kennington Common, in the south of London, and 

the government feared a riot. Yery few people 
appeared, and the Chartist leader, Feargus O'Connor, lost heart 
and did nothing. A little later an enormous petition was sent in 
by the Chartists to parliament, but on examination the signatures 
proved largely fictitious. This double failure overwhelmed them with 
ridicule, and the movement soon collapsed altogether, for improved 
work and higher wages took the worst sting from the discontent 
wliich animated them. Equally complete was the failure of Young 
Ireland. Smith O'Brien, their chief, made a feeble attempt at a 
rising, but was taken prisoner in a cabbage garden, whereupon the 
movement died out. Thus Britain weathered the storm which 
threatened so many f oreig-n states. In 1851 it celebrated the return 
of peace and prosperity by holding in Hyde Park the first Great 
Mxhihition of the industrial products of all nations. This was 
largely owing to the influence of the prince consort. 

19. "When the troubles of 1848 broke out abroad, Palmerston 

looked upon the constitutional and national movements with such 

„ ,_ favour that men of the old school condemned him 

Palmer- 

ston's as a firebrand and a revolutionary. As time went 

foreign qj^^ however, the liberal agitation became a revo- 

lutionary one. There was street fighting in half the 
capitals of Europe. Keaction followed revolution, and in the result 
the constitutional movement seemed undone. This was notably the 
case in France, where Louis ITapoleon, a nephew of N'apoleon the 
Great, became elected president of the French Republic only to 



1852.] VICTORIA — PEEL AND PALMERSTON 667 

overthi'ow it. In its stead he made liiinself Napoleon in., Emperor 
of the French, and soug-lit with indifferent success to copy the 
methods of his uncle. Henceforth France was ruled by a military 
despotism, controlled by fortune-hunters and adventui-ers. 

20. Palmerston was so disgnisted with revolutions ending- in 
anarchy that he privately expressed the fullest approval of Louis 
Napoleon's hig-h-handed subversion of the French 
Republic. He had not consulted either the queen or PalmeSon. 
the cabinet, and both were annoyed at the easy way 1851, and 
in which he pledged them to approve of perjury and ^gH^ ' 
violence. Already he had given much offence to crown 

and colleagues, and the queen had previously drawn uj) a memoran- 
dum insisting that he should always state what he proposed to do, 
and not alter measures after she had given them her sanction. After 
this fresh indiscretion he was dismissed from office. He bitterly 
complained that Russell had given way to the queen and the prince, 
and eagerly sought for an opportunity of being revenged upon him. 
His chance came in February, 1852, when Russell sought to aUay 
the fear of invasion which had followed from the establishment of 
another Napoleon in France by bringing in a bill to strengthen the 
militia. Many details of the proposal aroused dislike, and Palmer- 
ston, seeing in the ill will these excited a chance for revenge, carried 
an amendment against the ministers, and forced them to resign. 

21. Palmerston was not strong enough to form a government 
himself. His triumph brought into power the Protectionists, and 
Stanley, now by his father's death earl of Derbv. became 

«- ' TVia fillet" 

prime minister, with Disraeli as chancellor of the ex- Depby, 
chequer and leader of the House of Commons. But the Disraeli 
new ministers were in a minority, and held office through ^^52^*'''^' 
the favour of Palmerston and the divisions of their 
opponents. At first it was feared they would revive the corn 
laws, but Disraeli, who was rapidly showing that he was to be 
taken seriously, was too wise to go back on what had been done. 
He dropped both the name and the policy of protection, and his 
followers soon included the whole Conservative party, since the 
PeeHtes remained completely estranged, and generally voted 
against them. Before the end of the year the Whigs and Peelites 
put the government in a minority, and on December 16 it resigned. 

22. It was time to have done with governments on sufferance, 
and it was agreed that a coalition ministry should be formed of 
Peelites and Whigs. Aberdeen, the Peelite leader, became first 
lord of the treasury and prime minister. He was an accomplished 



668 VIC TO J? /A — P££L AND PALMERSTON [1852- 

and able man, but lacking" in firmness, resource, and knowledge of 
character. Lord John Russell, the Whig leader, became leader of 
the House of Commons, and Palmerston accepted the 
Aberdeen home secretaryship, an office he cared little for, but 
coalition took because he thought England wanted a strong 
™^i^*^y? government. Grladstone became chancellor of the ex- 
chequer, and showed himself a worthy disciple of 
Peel by his brilliant budgets and masterly budget speeches. He 
carried through financial reforms which made further strides in the 
direction of free trade ; but before long the outlook abroad turned 
men's minds from reform at home. 

23. The Eastern question was revived through the action of 
Nicholas i., the able and masterful tsar of Russia. Nicholas had 
long been seeking to persuade the powers to agree to 
and the * some sort of partition of the Turkish empire. " We 
Eastern have on our hands," said he, " a sick man ; it will be a 

great misfortune if he slip away from us before all 
necessary arrangements have been made." Nicholas showed fore- 
sight in anticipating the dissolution of Turkey, but he naturally 
wished to make Russia gain as much as he could from the 
collapse of the Turks. His policy excited great alarm in the 
West, and led many statesmen to make e:fforts to uphold the Turks 
so as to keep up the balance of power, and prevent Russia from 
becoming too strong in the south-east of Europe. This policy, 
of which Palmerston was the chief exponent in England, was 
quite wrong ; for the Turks, though admirable soldiers, were 
quite unteachable as rulers, and so habitually neglected and 
maltreated their Christian subjects that the latter were perpetu- 
ally rising in revolt against them. Encouraged by the example 
of the Greeks, other Christian subjects of the Turks were seeking 
to win their liberty, and looked up to Russia for help. The right 
policy for Europe would have been to join with Russia in getting 
rid of Turkish rule. It would not have been impossible, if the 
powers had worked together, to prevent Russia obtaining undue 
power at the expense of the Turks. However, the jealousies of 
the powers prevented combined action, and petty disputes between 
the Greek and Latin clergy in Jerusalem began a conflict which 
ultimately ripened into war. Nicholas supported the Greek 
monks, while the Latin clergy were supported by the French. In 
their alarm of Russia the Turks leant to the Latin side, and 
Nicholas made their action an excuse for taking up a strong line 
against them. In 1853 he occupied Moldavia and Wallachia, the 



•1855.] VICTORIA — PEEL AND PALMERSTON 669 

present king-dom of Roumania, but then vassal states of Turkey. 
He gave out that lie intended to hold them until the Turks restored 
the G-reek clergy to their accustomed position as custodians of the 
Holy Sepulchre. 

24. Napoleon iii. saw in the dispute between E-ussia and the 
Turks a chance of establishing his throne and winning glory for 
himseK, and Palmerston, always mistrustful of Russia, origin of 
largely sympathized with him. He was stiU the strong the Crimean 
man of the ministry, and his influence prevailed over War. 

that of Aberdeen and the Peelites, who were eager for peace, but 
did not know how to get it. A close alliance was formed between 
England and France, and England gradually drifted towards war. 
On Russia refusing to evacuate Moldavia and Wallachia, the 
English and French fleets entered the Dardanelles. Thereupon 
the Russians fell upon a Turkish squadron at Sinope, and destroyed 
it utterly. In January, 1854, the allied fleets entered the Black 
Sea, and war thus broke out. For the first time, after many 
generations. Englishmen and Frenchmen fought side by side, 

25. The first hostilities by land were on the Danube, where the 
Tui'ks checked the advance of the Russians by their stubborn 
defence of the fortresses which commanded the course ^^^^ 

of the great river. English and French troops were Crimean 
now sent in large numbers to Varna, the English War, 18ij4- 
being commanded by Lord Raglan, and the French by 
Marshal Saint- Arnaud. Thereupon the Russians withdrew from 
the Danube, and abandoning Moldavia and Wallachia, retui-ned to 
theii- own territory. The chief object of the war was gained. 
but the cabinet thoughtlessly ordered the troops at Yarna to 
invade the peninsula of the Crimea, where the Russians had 
recently erected the new fortress and military station of Sehastopol, 
from which it sought to command the whole of the Black Sea 
lands. In September, 1854, the troops at Yarna, already weakened 
by disease, were carried over the Black Sea, and landed in the 
west of the Crimea and the north of Sebastopol. Their equipment 
and supplies were adequate for an expedition rather than a pro- 
longed campaign, and an immediate advance towards Sebastopol 
was made. A Russian army blocked the allies' line of advance, but 
on September 20 its strong position was captured in the battle of 
the Alma. After this victory the allies abandoned the bold but 
wise plan of a sudden attack on Sebastopol, and resolved to conquer 
it by a regular siege. The siege of Sehastopol lasted from October. 
1854, to September, 1855. The ailies did not possess resources or 



670 



VICTORIA^- PEEL AXD PALMERSTON 



[1854- 



skill enough, to carry out siege operations properly, and were 
hampered by constant attacks from tlie large Russian armies that 
held the country within a few miles of the fortress. It was against 
these that, on October 25, the allies fought the 'battle of Balaclava, 
where the incompetence of the generals was redeemed by the valour 
of the soldiers, and notably by the two charges of the heavy and 
light brigades of British cavalry. On IS'ovember 5 the hattle of 
Inherman was fought, when the Russians in Sebastopol made a 
general assault on the besieging lines. Again victory was won by 




EmeryWalker sc 



the valour of the soldiers rather than the skiU of the generals. 
After these rude checks, the Russians showed greater caution in 
attacking the allies, but winter soon came on with its terrible cold, 
and the shameful incompetence of the home authorities left the 
troops utterly unprepared to face its severity. It was found 
impossible to shut off Sebastopol from communication with the 
Rilssian army outside, which pressed so hardly on the allies that 
they were almost as much on the defensive as the garrison. The 
land transport broke down so badly that it was almost impossible 
to convey stores from Balaclava on the sea- coast to the trenches 
that surrounded the south side of Sebastopol. Sickness worked 
more havoc than the Russian buUets, and nothing but the patient 



-1859-] VICTORIA — PEEL AND PALMERSTON 67 1 

endurance of tlie troops enabled tlie sieg-e to be maintained. 
Matters grew brighter with the return of fine weather, and at last, 
in September, 1855, the French captured the Malakov redoubt, the 
key of the defences. Thereupon the Russians evacuated the 
doomed fortress, and on September 8 the allies took possession of 
it. Every party to the war had lost so severely that all were glad 
to negotiate for peace, and in March, 1856, the treaty of Paris 
ended the Crimean War. One of its clauses forbade Russia main- 
taining a war fleet in the Black Sea. 

26. The mismanagement of the war had already brought 
about the fall of the coalition. A storm of indignation rose in 
England when the sufferings of the army became 

known, and in January, 1855, a motion for the ap- ston's first 
pointment of a committee to inquire into the state of ministry, 
the army was carried against the government by an 
enormous majority. Aberdeen was driven from office, and the 
Peelites soon followed him. Palmerston became prime minister, 
and his former chief, Russell, consented to serve under him. 
Palmerston' s energy soon put a new spirit into the conduct of the 
war. The skill and cheerfulness with which he retrieved disaster, 
and carried matters through to the peace, made him by far 
the strongest force in English politics for the rest of his life, 
though his restlessness and love of strong courses brought him 
more than once into trouble. He soon quarrelled with Russell, 
who was forced to leave the ministry. In 1857 he went to war 
against China, and when the House of Commons accepted a motioii 
of Cobden that there was no justification for his violent action against 
the Chinese, he appealed to the country, which showed its confi- 
dence in him by returning a large majority of his followers. Next 
year he was again in difficulties, because he brought in a Con- 
spiracy to Murder Bill, in order to please his ally, Napoleon iii., 
who had complained that a plot to murder him had been devised in 
England, and demanded an alteration of the law to prevent such 
conspiracies in future. A combination of Conservatives, Peelites, 
and Radicals again defeated Palmerston, and this time he was 
forced to resign. 

27. Derby and Disraeli now formed their second ministry, but 
they were in a minority in parliament, and were driven ^^^ second 
from power in June, 1859. Pabnerston was then restored Derby- 

to office. His second ministry lasted untU his death in Disrael 
1865. It included both Whigs and Peelites, who were 5"858-?859. 
now almost welded together into a single Liberal 



6/2 VICTORIA — PEEL AND PALMERSTON [1859- 

party, of wliicli tlie Peelites were in some ways the advanced 

_ , „ half. 

Palmers- ^-^ -r^ . -r» t i , i i • • j i 

ton's second 28. During Palmerston s last ministry great 

ministry, changes took place on the continent. The movement 
towards Italian and Grerman unity, which had been 
rudely checked after the failure of the revolution of 1848, now 
Italian and resumed its course. Yictor Emanuel, king of Sar- 
German dinia since 1849, put himself at the head of the Italian 

unity. national party, and was made king of Italy, A great 

step towards G-erman unity was taken in 1864, when Austria and 
Prussia united and expelled the Danes from the duchies of 
Schleswig and Holstein, which were largely German. But they 
quarrelled over the distribution of the spoils, and engaged, in 1866, 
in a short but decisive struggle for supremacy. The Austrians 
were beg-ten, and expelled fron^. the German confederation. 
Prussia, now ruled by King William i. and his minister, Bismarck, 
became the leading power in Germany, A North German con- 
federation was formed, which secured Prussian supremacy over all 
Germany north of the Main. 

29. A fresh trouble arose in 1861, when a great civil war rent 
asunder the United States of America. The Southern states 

. seceded, and formed a new confederation to uphold 
can Civil slavery. England professed strict neutrality in this 
War, 1861- conflict, but public opinion was largely in favour of 
the South, which was believed to be anxious to make 
itself an independent nation as the Italians and Germans were 
doing. This led to somewhat strained relations between England 
and the ^Northern states. The Americans particularly complained 
of the slackness of the English government which allowed priva- 
teering cruisers, such as the Alabama, to be built in English dock- 
yards, to prey on their commerce. When, in 1865, the persistent 
efforts of the Il^orth had restored the imperilled union, there was 
still much bad blood between the Americans and the English. 
Another result of the war was the cotton famme in Lancashire, 
which was a time of great distress for the factory hands, whose 
supply of raw cotton had been cut off by the Northerners' blockade 
of the Southern ports. 

30. During all these troubles Palmerston guided the fortunes of 
England with fair, but not distinguished, success. He had the good 
sense not to interfere with movements with which he had little sym- 
pathy. He did something to help the Italians, but court influence 
prevented him assisting the Danes in their plucky but unavailing 



-1865.] VICTORIA — PEEL AND PALMERSTON 6/3 

struggle to retain the duchies. Amidst great difficulties he kept 
up our good understanding with France, though the restless policy 
of Napoleon iii. made the outlook very uncertain, 
and a renewed fear of invasion in 1859 led to a great ston's 
volunteer movement, which has since largely in- foreign 
creased the defensive forces of the crown. Dread of P^"^^* 
Napoleon, however, soon wore away, and, in 1860, Cobden negotiated 
a conitnercial treaty with France, which led to the restoration 
of friendly relations. 

31. AU through these years foreign affairs called away EngKsh 
attention from domestic politics. Palmerston, now a very old 
man, cared nothing for reforms at home, and very „, , ^, |, 
little for the party game. His strong desire to do palmerston 
nothing provoked much resentment among the more and its 
ardent spirits in his cabinet. Chief among these were r||g * 
the Peelites, who were more eager for change than 
the old-fashioned Whigs. Palmerston allowed Gladstone, the 
Peelite chief, to be his chancellor of the exchequer. In a series 
of brilliant budgets Gladstone removed the chief obstacles to 
free trade, an end which Cobden's commercial treaty furthered. 
The times were very prosperous, and the revenue increased 
rapidly, though tax after tax was given up. But Palmerston 
looked with great distrust on Gladstone. He was shrewd enough 
to see that after his retirement the reformers would have the 
upper hand. " Gladstone," he said, " will soon have his way ; 
whenever he gets my place, we shall have strange doings." So 
long, however, as the old minister Hved, he clung to power, and 
kept back his eager followers. He died on October 18, 1865, when 
over eighty years of age. His best points were his strong will, 
courage, energy, cheerfulness, kindliness, but he was lacking in 
seriousness and high principle, very self-confident, and too much 
given to flippancy and bluster. But he honestly strove, sometimes 
perhaps not very discreetly, to uphold the honour and interests of 
England, and his death removed the most interesting and popular 
personality in English politics. With him ends the period which 
began with the Reform BiQ of 1832. It was a time of middle- 
class ascendency, and the strong and weak points of the English 
middle class are strongly brought out in the history of the period. 
Four years before this the sudden death of the Prince Consort 
removed another great moderating influence. 



2 A 



CHAPTER IV 

VICTORIA— GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI 

(1865-1886) 

Chief Dates : 

1866. The third Derby-Disraeli Ministry. 

1867. The second Reform Act ; Fenian risings. 

1868. The first Gladstone Ministry. 

1869. Disestablishment of the Irish Church. 

1870. The Franco-German War. 
1874. The Disraeli Ministry. 
1878. Treaty of Berlin ; Afghan War. 
1880. Second Gladstone Ministry. 
1882. British occupation of Egypt. 

1884. Third Eef orm Act. 

1885. Death of Gordon ; short Salisbury Ministry. 

1886. Gladstone's defeat on Home Rule. 



Beginning 
of the 
tpansition 
to de- 
mocpaey, 
1865. 



1, On Palmer st on" s death Russell, wlio since 1861 had sat in the- 
Lords as Earl E-nssell, became prime minister. Palmerston's place 
as leader of the Commons was given to G-ladstone. 
His appointment showed that the reforming* section of 
the cabinet, which Palmerston had so long kept under, 
had now taken the lead. Its immediate result was- 
the beginning X)f a new period of change which 
soon began to undermine the middle- class ascendency 
established in 1832. A transition to democracy began, which all 
parties helped qn, though none with full knowledge of what they 
were doing. The twenty years which follow are occupied in the 
working out of this movement. 

2. Parliamentary reform became a burning question, The^ 

Radicals had long- been dissatisfied with the act of 1832. For 

many years the old Whigs had declared it to be a final! 

settlement of the question, but the cry for thorough. 

reform became so loud that Russell himself brought 

in several reform bills, and Disraeli proposed another 

in 1859. !None of these measures were either popular 

or successful, and for the last few years Palmerston had preventedl 

674 



The Russell 
ministry 
and the 
Reform Bill, 
1865-1866. 



186;,] VICTORIA — GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI 675 

the question being renewed. N'ow that his inflnence was removed, 
Gladstone introduced, in 1866, a new Reform Bill. Palmer- 
«ton's followers, who shared their old chief's hatred of reform, 
retired, as Bright said, into a new Cave of Adullam, into which, 
like David, they invited all the discontented to join them. The 
Conservatives and Adullamites joined together, and, in June, 1866, 
drove the government out of office. 

3. For the third time the uneasy task fell to Derby and 
Disraeli of forming a stop-gap ministry from a minority of the 
House of Commons. Disraeli had been for more 

than twenty years the leader of a minority, and had Derby- 
failed to win either parliament or the middle-class Disraeli 
constituencies to his ideas. A great reform agitation ^^ge-l^'s 
broke out, which convinced him that the working- 
men were resolved to have a democratic parliament. Undeterred 
by his failure in 1859, he brought forward a new Reform Bill 
in 1867. Some of his followers were alarmed at its jhe second 
boldness, and left the ministry in disgust. The most Reform Act, 
important of these was Lord Cranborne, afterwards 
Marquis of Salisbury. Despite this, the measure was carried 
through. Before it became law, it was made even more j)opular 
through the action of the Liberal majority in the House of 
Commons. By it all householders, rated to pay poor-rate, in 
English and Scotch boroughs, obtained votes, though in Ireland 
a £'4 rating qualification was fixed. Lodgers were also allowed to 
vote if they paid £10 a year in rent and lived in the same rooms 
for a year. In the counties the franchise was extended to occupiers 
paying a rent of £12 a year. A redistribution of seats was also 
effected. Some small boroughs were disfranchised, and those having 
less than 10,000 inhabitants lost one member. The vacant seats 
were mostly given to the greater counties, but some of them went 
to new boroughs, while the greater centres received increase of 
^representation. Five very large cities, Leeds, Liverpool, Man- 
chester, Birmingham, and G-lasgow, got a third member. House- 
hold suffrage was thus introduced in the towns, and a great step 
was made towards democracy, for it was plain that the middle- 
class county constituencies could not last much longer, now that 
all workmen who happened to live in boroughs possessed votes. 

4. Grrave trouble soon arose in Ireland. About 1863 a party 
of Irish and Irish- Americans started a secret society, whose 
members were known as the Fenians. Its object was to set up an 
Irish republic, and it gained increased strength when, after the 



6j6 VICTORIA — GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI [1S67- 

end of the American civil war, many Irish, who had learnt mili- 
tary discipline in America, returned to their native country. In 

1867 a general revolt was attempted in Ireland. 
Fenians Though little came of this, the Fenian sympathizers 

succeeded in carrying out a series of daring acts in 
England. An attempt was made to rescue some Irish prisoners 
from a police-van in Manchester, and the police-serjeant in charge 
was shot. In London the wall of Clerkenwell prison, where several 
Fenian leaders were confined, was blown down with gunpowder, 
and many innocent persons were injured and slain. The crimes of 
the Fenians called attention to the undoubted grievances of the 
Irish. Gladstone and the Liberals started a new agitation for 
Irish reform, and carried through the House of Commons a resolu- 
tion in favour of the disestablishment of the Irish Church. 
Disraeli had just become prime minister, on Derby's retirement 
from ill health. He soon dissolved parliament, but the new con- 
stituencies showed themselves unfavourable to the author of the 
second Heform Act. The Liberals obtained a majority of over 
a hundred, and Disraeli resigned. 

5. A strong Liberal ministry was formed with Gladstone as 
prime minister. For the first time the decided reformers were 
The first stronger than the aristocratic Whigs, and a place 
Gladstone was found for John Bright, who, since Cobden's death, 
ministry, -wras the most conspicuous of the Radical chiefs. For 

the next six years a series of changes was carried out 
greater than any that had ever been previously attempted. The 
first of these was the disestablishment and disendowment of the 

Irish Church in 1869. The Protestant episcopal 
lishment of Church of Ireland was now doing its spiritual work 
the Ipish far better than in the eighteenth century, but it was 
1869*^**' the Church of a minority, and the Catholic majority 

looked upon it as the representative of foreign con- 
quest, while nearly half the Irish Protestants were Presbyterians. 
When once attacked, it was almost impossible to defend it, and its 
fall was made easier by the liberal terms granted to it. 

6. The deepest grievance of the Irish was not the Church, but 
the land. Nearly thirty years before the weak points of the Irish 

land system had been revealed by the Devon com- 
system. mission, but nothing had been done to redress them. 

Speaking roughly, the land laws in England and 
Ireland were the same, but the practical difference was enormous 
owing to the great differences between the two peoples. In both 



-1870.] VICTORIA—GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI 6// 

countries rent was supposed to be settled by competition. In 
England this competition was to some extent real, but in Ireland 
the needy peasant farmers were quite unable to bargain on equal 
terms with their landlords, and cheerfully promised to pay impos- 
sible rents, since getting a farm was their only remedy against 
starvation. Moreover, while in England most improvements were 
made and buildings set up by the owner, in Ireland these improve- 
ments were made by the tenant, though as soon as they were made 
they became the property of the landlord. 

7. In the old times, custom had kept the tenant on his holding 
for generations together, but after the famine grasping agents 
and improving landlords neglected these traditions, jhe first 
and rack-rented and evicted the tenants just as Irish Land 
they thought fit. Thus the very improvements ^^^' 1870. 
in Irish agriculture since the famine only added to Irish 
discontent, and deepened the deep gulf between tenant and 
owner. In 1870 Gladstone's first Irish Land Act attempted to 
remedy these grievances. It forced landlords to compensate their 
tenants for improvements effected by them, and allowed tenants, 
evicted for other causes than non-payment of rent, compensation 
for being disturbed in their holdings. Its effect was to recognize 
a dual ownership of the land between landlord and tenant, but it 
was not thorough enough, and therefore not a great success. It 
left landlords as free to evict as ever, if they chose to pay com- 
pensation ; and it was not rigorous enough to prevent landlords 
who wished to evade the act from doing so. 

8. Besides the changes in Ireland, the ministers introduced 
many other plans of reform. In 1870 W. E. Forster carried 
through an Elementary Education Act which allowed The Educa- 
districts to elect a School Board, levy an education tion Act, 

1870 

rate, and compel children to go to school. Before that 
the education of the people had depended upon the voluntary action 
of individuals or of private societies. For more than thirty years 
the government had made grants to schools thus established, but 
it was only now that a rational system of education was set 
on foot. 

9. In 1871 Cardwell, the war minister, began a series of army 
reforms by which short service was introduced, and the germs of 
a new army system laid, which included militia and 
volunteers as well as the regular forces. CardweU pgfj^^g 
also proposed to abolish the custom by which officers 

bought their commissions in the army. The Lords put aside 



6y8 VICTORIA — GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI [1870 

tMs sclieme, wlierenpon Grladstone took tlie high-lianded course of 
albolisliiiig purcliase by royal warrant. In 1872 a Ballot Act was 
passed to establish secret voting at elections of the House of 
Commons. In 1873 Lord Selborne, the chancellor, passed Ms 
Judicature Act, which united the different law courts into a single 
high court of justice, and aimed at making law simpler, cheaper, 
and more certain. 

10. During these years stirring events abroad made British 
foreign policy very important. In 1870 war broke out between 

the French Empire and Prussia, in which every 
German Grerman state except Austria took the Prussian side. 

War and its Yictory at once f eR to the Germans, who invaded 
IfiTn^^Rvi Prance, took the emperor prisoner, and dictated peace 

after the capitulation of Paris. By this peace France 
surrendered Alsace and part of Lorraine to the Germans. This 
triumph completed the unity of Germany. During its course the 
southern states joined with the north to form a new German 
Empire, and King William of Prussia accepted the imperial crown 
at Yersailles. ItaKan unity was also completed at the same time 
by Victor Emanuel destroying the temporal power of the pope, 
and making Rome the capital of his kingdom. During the struggle 
France rejected the authority of the captive emperor, and set up 
the Third Republic, which has lasted ever since. For long there 
was great ill-feeling between France and Germany, while united 
Germany and united Italy were drawn very close together. 
Abandoning its old poUcy, Austria also joined the Germans and 
Italians. Ultimately Russia and France established a close friend- 
ship to meet the triple alliance of the powers of central Europe. 

11. During the Franco- German war, England took up an 
attitude of neutrality. Russia took the opportunity to announce 
Gladstone's "^^^^ ^^^ ^^ longer considered herself bound by the 
foreign treaty of 1856, and again intended to keep warships in 
PC ley. ^jj^g. Black Sea. As the government was not prepared 
to fight to uphold the treaty, it was forced to acquiesce in Russia's 
action. The ministry also agreed to submit to arbitration the 
claims brought against it by the United States for compensation 
for the loss of their commerce due to the action of the Alabama 
during the civil war. In 1872 the arbitrators decided that 
England was to pay three miUion pounds for her remissness. It 
was a heavy, and possibly excessive, sum, and the ministers were 
severely blamed, as they were also for their yielding to Russia. 

12. The energy of Gladstone's government had been only 



-1876.3 VICTORIA — GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI 679 

matciied by tliat of Lord Grrey in the years after the first Reform 
Act. After six years of vigorous policy, a reaction came 
similar to that which had weakened the Whigs under pall of 
Grey's successor, Melbourne. Every one was tired of Gladstone, 
reform, and Disraeli laug-hed at the ministers sitting ^^^** 
opposite to him as a range of exhausted volcanoes. The govern- 
ment became unpopular through its weak foreig-n policy, the want 
of tact or firmness of some of its members, and the scandalous 
character of some of its appointments. Some of its later measures 
were extremely iU-advised. Conspicuous among these was the 
proposal to set up a new university in Ireland, in which neither 
theology, philosophy, nor history were to be taught. The revolt 
of its own supporters forced the government to give up this absurd 
proposal, and Grladstone resigned. However, Disraeli refused to 
form a fourth stop-gap ministry, and Gladstone resumed office. 
His position was, however, fatally weakened, and in January, 1874, 
he suddenly dissolved parKament. A majority of more than fifty 
Conservatives was returned to the House of Commons, whereupon 
the ministers tendered their final resignation. They had done 
great things, yet few cabinets had failed more signally. 

13. Up to now Disraeli had always been in a minority, and 
whether in opposition, or as minister on suffrance, had had little 
chance of showing his statesmanship. His success The Disraeli 
showed that he had made his popular national Toryism ministry, 

. . 1874-1880 

attractive to the lower middle classes, which had 
hitherto voted Liberal, and to the workmen of the towns to whom he 
had first given votes. A Conservative reaction, as decided as that 
of 1841, proved him a party leader of great insight and shrewdness, 
and enabled him to form a strong government, which kept in power 
for over six years. He offered a policy of no violent changes, 
steady practical improvements, good administration, and careful 
regard to the interests of the Empire. He passed many useful 
measures, which, not having much party bearing, hardly brought 
him as much credit as they deserved. Moreover, many of his 
reforms were permissive and not compulsory, so that they were not 
whoUy satisfactory, though they sometimes prepared public opinion 
for stronger measures in the same direction. 

14. In 1876 Disraeli became earl of Beaconsfield, whereupon 
Sir Stafford ISTorthcote became leader of the House of The Home 
Commons. His gentle methods soon proved inade- Rulemove- 
quate to deal with a new Irish difficulty which now 
disturbed the popular chamber. For some years an agitation in 



68o VICTORIA — GLADSTO'NE AND DISRAELI [1877- 

favour of Some Rule for Ireland had been raised. It became 
important when an Irish Nationalist party was organized under the 
strong" and astute guidance of Charles Stewart Parnell, a Protestant 
country gentleman from Wicklow. The Nationalists took up the 
Home Rule agitation, and sought to press their views on the House 
of Commons by organizing the systematic obstruction of all 
business. A small knot of members, regardless of the orderly 
traditions of the house, was able to keep parliament sitting all 
night, and almost prevent any business being done. The objects of 
the Nationalists were even more agrarian than political. The land 
act had not fully dealt with the evils it sought to remedy, and bad 
harvests intensified the chronic distress of Ireland. Accordingly 
Parnell started the Land League, with the object of obtaining for 
the occupier of Irish land complete property in his holding. Yiolent 
speeches were made to ignorant, excitable, and suffering audiences, 
and outrages became common in southern and western Ireland. The 
agitation weakened the government, and ministers made no attempt to 
grapple with the source of discontent by further agrarian legislation. 
15. The Eastern question now again came to a head. The 
national movement, which had united Germany and Italy, was felt 
The Russo- ^ ^^® Balkan Peninsula, where a minority of Moham- 
Tupkish medan Turks still misgoverned a population that 

War, 1877- Tj^^g mainly Christian. The special diflBLculty in the 
situation was that the Balkan lands did not contain 
one nation, but many. Serbians, Roumanians, Bulgarians, Greeks, 
and others were scattered about the peninsula, and, though united 
against the misrule of the Turks, were bitterly opposed to each 
other. The majority of the people were Slavs, and the Slavs 
turned, as usual, to Russia for help. A revolt of the Bulgarians 
was put down by the Turks with fearful cruelty. Thereupon 
Serbia and Montenegro took up arms against the Porte, but could 
not effect much. These proceedings showed that the attempts to 
reform Turkey after the Crimean War had utterly failed, and that 
it was useless to prop up so miserable a power any longer. The 
best way now, as in the days of Canning, would probably have been 
for Europe to combine to force the Turks to give some kind of 
self-government to their subjects. But the jealousies and in- 
difference of the European powers, and the stolid obstinacy of the 
sultan, made this policy impracticable. As in 1829, Russia took up 
arms on behalf of the revolted Christians, and, after fierce fighting ■ 
in Bulgaria, the beginning of 1878 saw the Russians marching in 
triumph on Constantiaople. 



-1879.] VICTORIA— GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI 68 1. 

16. The plain danger of a Russian occupation of Constantinople 

brought about a loud cry for war in England. Beaconsfield fostered 

the agitation, sent a fleet to the Sea of Marmora, called , 

The treati6s 
out volunteers from England, and hurried Indian ^^ ^^^ g^g_ 

troops to Malta. English feeling was, however, divided, fane and 

since there was a strong dislike to help the Turks, and fire "' 

a widespread sympathy with the suffering Christians. 

However, the warlike preparations of England induced Russia to 

give moderate terms to the Tui-ks in the treaty of Ban Stefano. 

Lord Salisbury, now foreign minister, objected to some of these, 

and demanded that the conditions of peace should be examined by 

a European congress. Accordingly, in June, 1878, a congress of 

the great powers met at Berlin, in which Beaconsfield and Salisbury 

represented the United Kingdom. Here was drawn up the treaty 

of Berlin, which settled the Eastern question for a few years. By 

it Bulgaria north of the Balkans was made a self-governing state, 

paying tribute to the sultan, while Bulgaria south of the Balkans, 

called Eastern RoumeKa, was allowed a certain amount of local 

self-government under a Christian pasha. Montenegro, Serbia, 

and Roumania were declared independent, and received additions 

to their territory. Russia and Greec^ acquired fresh lands at the 

expense of the sultan, and Austria was allowed to take possession 

of Bosnia. Cyprus was handed over to the EngKsh on condition 

of their protecting Asia Minor. The chief difference between this 

treaty and that of San Stefano was in the division of Bulgaria 

into two parts. The division was, however, unpopular with the 

Bulgarians, and seven years later the two Bulgarias were united. 

The main importance of the treaty lies in the triumph of the policy 

of replacing the dying Turkish Empire by national self-governing 

states. Beaconsfield had been accused of wishing to back up 

Turkey, but, if he ever held this poKcy, he seems to have given it 

up. He now boasted that he had won " peace with honour," and 

had protected British interests in the East from Russian aggression. 

17. In 1879 Beaconsfield joined with France in setting up a 
dual control in Egypt, which practically put the government of 
the country into the hands of the two Western powers, ^j^^ ^^^^ 
Their intervention was necessary because the khedive, control in 
or viceroy, of Egypt had made the country Ibankrupt Egypt, 
through his extravagance, and was no longer able to 
maintain order. Four years before this, Beaconsfield bought the 
khedive's share, amounting to nearly half the capital, in the Suez 
Canal, which, built by French engineers, had, since 1869, immensely 

2 A 2 



682 VICTORIA — GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI [r88o- 

shortened tlie sea journey "between Europe and India,, by opening" 
up a navigable way from tlie Mediterranean to tlie Hed Sea. 

18. Absorbed in foreign affairs, the government had not dealt 
very vigorously with rising difficulties at home, or ruled very 
Fall of sternly the disorderly House of Commons. Its foreign 
Beacons- policy, though much praised by some, was violently 
neld, 1880. attacked by others. G-ladstone denounced with fervid 
eloquence the threatened alliance with the Turks, and his zeal stirred 
up a deep response. Early in 1880 a general election destroyed 
Beaconsfield's majority, and brought back the Liberals to power, 
A year after his resignation Beaconsfield died. 

19. In the new Liberal ministry, Gladstone was first lord of the 
treasury and chancellor of the exchequer. His first concern was 
The second ^^^® more Ireland, and in 1881 he passed the second 
Gladstone Irish Land Act, which carried much further the 
ministry, doctrines of the act of 1870. It aUowed tenants to 

sell their interest in their holdings to the highest 
bidder, and set up land courts to fix rents by judicial process. It 
therefore frankly accepted the dual proprietorship between landlord 
and tenant implicitly recognized in 1870. For the 
policy. moment it brought no peace to Ireland, where out- 

rages became general, and the Land League started 
a new agitation to induce tenants to withhold altogether the 
payment of rent. At the same time the Home Rule members of 
parliament continued to embarrass the conduct of business by their 
persistent obstruction in the House of Commons, At first the 
government answered this agitation by dissolving the Land League, 
and putting Parnell and other Irish leaders in prison. In 1882, 
however, it somewhat changed its policy, released the Irish leaders, 
and seemed disposed to consider their wishes. Alm ost immediately 
after, however, the Irish secretary. Lord Frederick Cavendish, and 
T. H, Burke, the permanent under-secretary, were murdered by a 
gang of Irish conspirators in Dublin. On this, a Prevention of 
Crimes Bill was quickly passed, and, to stop further obstruction, 
new rules for conducting business through parliament were enforced 
which gave a decided majority the power to compel the closing of 
a debate. This policy made the Irish fiercely hostile to the govern- 
ment, and they now sought for any occasion to turn it out of 
office. 

20. Foreign complications soon began to overwhelm the ministry. 
India was disturbed by a war with Afghanistan, which was only 
ended by the withdrawal of the English from that country. A 



-1885.] VICTORIA — GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI 08 3 

series of disasters in Soutli Africa led to the restoration of the inde- 
pendence of the Transvaal. But the greatest difficulty was in 
Egypt, where Arabi Pasha headed a rising- ag*ainst 
European supremacy. Moreover, the Sudan, or reg-ion ^^e Sudan, 
of the Upper Nile, which the Egyptians had conquered, 
rose in revolt under a Mohammedan prophet, called the Mahdi. The 
dual control broke down before the double crisis, and France left 
England to deal single-handed with these troubles. Accordingly, 
troops were sent to Egypt, and, in 1882, General Wolseley completely 
defeated Arabi at Tel-el-Kehir. This led to the nominal restoration 
of the khedive's power in Egypt, but henceforth the country was 
practically ruled by England. During these transactions, however, 
the Mahdi had conquered the whole Sudan, save a few posts where 
loyal Egyptian garrisons still held out against him. Early in 1884 
the government sent G-eneral Gordon to Khartum, the capital of 
the Sudan, to arrange the withdrawal of the garrisons. 

21. Charles George Gordon was an engineer officer, who, ten 
years before, had won great fame by putting down for the Chinese 
government a formidable revolt, showing in his difficult The death 
task a wonderful courage and simple faith, a shrewd of Gordon, 
insight into savage nature, and a remarkable power of 
governing men and inspiring them with confidence in him. After- 
wards he became ruJer of the Sudan on behalf of the khedive, and 
obtained great influence over the people of that wild region. 
He now made his way, unarmed and almost unattended, to Khartum. 
But he soon saw that he could not save the garrisons as circum- 
stances then were. He, therefore, asked the government to give 
him troops, or a free hand to choose his own agents for reducing 
the disturbed province to some sort of order. The government 
refused both requests, and left him to deal as best he could with the 
Mahdi. Soon the Mahdi's troops besieged Khartum, and a loud 
cry rose in England to save the hero that defended it. After much 
hesitation, the irresolute government resolved to send an army to 
effect his release. In the summer of 1884 a British force moved 
painfully up the Nile, but the water was exceptionally low, and it 
made but slow progress. Before Khartum could be reached the 
city had been betrayed to the Mahdi, whereupon, in January, 1885, 
Gordon was slain. Soon after this the Sudan was abandoned. 
Luckily, the influence of the Mahdi now declined, and Egypt had 
comparative rest for several years. While the Egyptian troubles 
were acute, Russia pressed on her forces in Afghanistan, and 
threatened the Indian 'frontier. As in 1878, war with Russia 



684 VICTORIA — GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI [1884- 

seemed almost inevitable, but the question was referred to arbi- 
tration, and some sort of agreement arrived at. 

22. In 1884 the government brought forward a new bill for 
the extension of the franchise, which was rejected by the Lords on 

th" d ^^ ground that no scheme for the redistribution of 
Refopm seats accompanied it. Later in the year the biU. was 

Acts, 1884- again brought forward. This time a plan for the 
redistribution of seats was arranged between the 
Liberals and Conservatives, so that the third Reform Act became 
law with little difficulty. By it the franchise in the counties was 
made the same as in the boroughs, and several new methods of 
obtaining a vote were allowed. It disfranchised all boroughs with 
under fifteen thousand inhabitants, and reduced all with under 
fifty thousand to one member. It cut up the country into single 
member districts, the only exception to this being old boroughs 
returning two representatives, which remained undivided. A rough 
regard was given to population in determining the limits of these 
divisions, so that the great towns and the mining and manufactur- 
ing districts obtained much more adequate representation than 
before. Thus the number of London representatives was raised 
from twenty-two to sixty-two. Liverpool and Manchester (with 
SaKord) got nine each, Glasgow and Birmingham seven each, and 
so on in proportion. The result was that England was made a 
thorough democracy, dependent on household suffrage with a 
comparative approach to equal electoral districts. 

23. The credit it obtained from the Reform Bill did not com- 
pensate the government for its failures in foreign policy, and its 

vacillation in dealing with the situation in Ireland. 
Salisbury Beaten by a combination of Conservatives and Irish 
ministry. Nationalists, Grladstone resigned in June, 1885, and 

was replaced by a Conservative government under the 
marquis of Salisbury. A general election followed in November, 
the result of which was that the Irish held the balance between 
the two English parties. When Parliament met the Irish voted 
with the Liberals and restored them to power. In February, 1886, 

a third Gladstone ministry was accordingly established. 
Gladstone Some of the moderate Liberals, including the marquis 
ministry, of Hartington, son of the duke of Devonshire, and 

brother of Lord Frederick Cavendish, had refused to 
take part in it. A few weeks later some of those who had taken 
office abandoned the government. The chief of these was Joseph 
Chamberlain, a Birmingham manufacturer, who had taken a 



-i886.] VICTORIA — GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI 685 

conspicuous part in tlie second Gladstone ministry, and was tlie 
chief spokesman of a new school of Radicals, which, unlike the 
Manchester school of Bright and Cobden, believed that vigorous 
state interference would do more good than the policy of letting 
tilings alone, and had no sympathy with the apathy with which 
the older school regarded our foreign and colonial interests. Thus 
the Liberal ministry was hardly formed when the party began 
to break up. 

24. The causes of this split had long been working, but the 
crisis was brought about by the knowledge that the prime minister 
was prepared to meet the requirements of his Irish Home Rule 
allies by introducing a bill giving Home Rule to and the 
Ireland. In April, 1886, Gladstone brought forward ^J ^^eoM 
a measure giving the Irish a local parliament and a parties, 
local executive, and shutting their representatives out 1886. 
of the imperial parliament, which was still to carry on affairs 
of general imperial interest, while Irish landlords were to be 
bought out by a general scheme of land purchase. Ninety-three 
Liberals, henceforward called Liberal-Unionists, joined with the 
Conservatives in upholding the Union, and the second reading was 
lost by thirty votes. An appeal to the new democracy confirmed 
their action, for a general election held in July gave the allied 
Liberal-Unionist and Conservative parties a huge majority over 
the followers of Gladstone and Parnell. Thereupon Gladstone 
resigned, and Lord Salisbury was called upon to form a government 
pledged to the defence of the Union. Henceforth the new issue 
raised by Gladstone divided British parties into Unionists and 
Home Rulers. The elections of July, 1886, bring to an end the 
well-marked period which began with the death of Palmerston. 
For over twenty years the new liberalism had set forth its plans 
of large reforms, and for twenty years the new conservatism had 
maintained its spirited foreign poKcy and care for imperial interests. 
These forces were now turned into fresh channels. In the next 
generation the old party names and watchwords ceased to have 
much of their old meaning. New party names were formed, and 
new questions sprang up with the solution of which we are still 
busy. The transition to democracy was completed. Social and 
economic problems, such as previously had been thought almost 
outside the province of the legislator, sprang up, while questions 
of colonial and foreign poKcy became increasingly important. 



CHAPTER V 

VICTORIA— HOME RULE AND THE EMPIRE 

(1886-1901) 

Chief Dates : 

1886. Salisbury Unionist Ministry formed. 

1887. The Queen's Jubilee. 

1888. Pamell Commission appointed. 
1892. Fourth Gladstone Ministry. 

1894. Eesignation of Gladstone ; Lord Rosebery prime minister. 

1895. Third Salisbury Ministry established. 

1898. Battle of Omdurman. 

1899. Beginning of the Boer War. 
1901. Death of Victoria. 

1. During the last fifteen years of the reign of Victoria the 

Unionist party remained in office, save for a brief interval between 

„ ,. 1892 and 1895. In the earlier years, between 1886 

The Sails- 
bupy and 1892, the government was chosen almost excln- 

Unionist sively from tlie Conservative wing of the Unionist 

1886-1 8^2 niajority, though Hartington and Chamberlain, the 

Liberal-Unionist leaders, gave the government their 
general support. Lord Salisbury, the prime minister, also acted 
as foreign secretary, and the office of leader of the House of Com- 
mons went to W. H. Smith, a plain man of business. The other 
chief members of the cabinet were Gr. J. G-oschen, chancellor of 
exchequer, and the only Liberal-Unionist who held office, and 
Arthur J. Balfour, Lord Salisbury's nephew, who was Irish 
secretary. 

2. Ireland was still restless. Parnell declared that, despite the 
Land Acts, rents were still too high, and some of his followers 

started an organization called the Plan of Campaign^ 
Campaign. ^^ which the occupiers on certain estates withheld all 

rent from their landlords until they were willing to 
accept the tenants' terms. The landlords answered the Plan of 
Campaign with evictions, and these excited serious riots, which 
menaced the public peace. Balfour showed much tact and coolness 
in dealing both with the Irish party in parliament and Ysdth the 
686 



1891.] VICTORIA — HOME RULE AND THE EMPIRE 6^7 

aggrieved tenants. Before long the Plan of Campaign agitation 
died away, and Ireland became less disturbed. 

3. A new phase of the Irish question was soon started. The 
Times newspaper accused ParneH of direct complicity with the 
worst outrages in Ireland, and published a facsiinile of „, p „ 
what professed to be a letter from him, in which he Commis- 
declared that, though he regretted the death of Lord sion, 1 888- 
Frederick Cavendish, " he could not refuse to admit 

that Burke got no more than his deserts." Parnell solemnly 
protested that he had never written the letter, and, in 1888, parlia- 
ment appointed a special coTninission of three judges to examine the 
charges brought by the Times against Parnell. In their report the 
commissioners acquitted Parnell of the specific offence of approving 
of the Dublin murders, it being proved that the letter on which 
the accusation was based was a forgery. It found, however, that 
Parnell and his associates had incited to intimidate, and " did not 
denounce the system of intimidation which led to crime and outrage, 
but persisted in it with knowledge of its effect." The general 
indignation felt at the blundering of the Times destroyed much of 
the effect of this judicial condemnation of the Irish leaders' political 
methods. The alliance between the Parnellites and the followers 
of Grladstone became closer than ever, and Parnell showed studied 
m.oderation in order to win over English public opinion. 

4. A few months later, charges gravely affecting ParneU's private 
character were brought against him in the Divorce Court, and left 
unanswered. Notwithstanding this, his Irish followers _ .... 

in parKament re-elected him their leader for the new and Anti- 
session, which began in November, 1890. However, Parnellites, 

1890-1891 

Parnell's British allies were much shocked at the 
conduct of the man in whose character they had so loudly expressed 
confidence. In effect, the Irish party in parliament had to choose 
between fidelity to its old leader and breaking with the English 
Liberals. However, the majority of the Catholic clergy in Ireland 
declared against ParneU, and his stern discipline was so much 
resented by many of his subordinates that they gladly took this 
pretext for overthrowing him. But ParneU refused to bow before 
the storm. A few faithful allies still clave to him in his misfortune, 
and the Irish party was rent asunder. Though his health was 
breaking up, he showed extraordinary persistence in fighting to the 
last, but his candidates were defeated at nearly every election by 
the party of the priests and the English alliance, and, in 1891, 
ParneU died, worn out by the struggle. The split between the 



688 VICTORIA— HOME RULE AND THE EMPIRE [1886- 

Parnellites and the Anti-Parnellites, as the two sections of tlie 
Irish party were called, had now become so deep that it long 
survived his death. When at length a formal reunion between 
them was patched np, a disciple of Parnell's, John Redmond, became 
the Irish leader. Meanwhile the effect of the schism was greatly 
to weaken the Home Rule agitation. 

5. Foreign affairs occupied much of Salisbury's attention. 
During all these years the relations between England and France 
Foreign were unfriendly, especially on account of Egypt, 
policy, where the British were successfully carrying out the 

work of reorganization in which the French had 
declined to take part. Distrust of England, and a feeling that the 
Triple Alliance of Grermany, Austria, and Italy was directed against 
them, caused the French to look for support to Russia, which had 
been alienated from Germany since the death of the Emperor 
William i., in 1888, and the dismissal of his minister, Bismarck, by 
his grandson, the energetic William 11. The result was the con- 
clusion of 2b Dual Alliance between the radical democracy of the 
West and the reactionary despotism of the East. Between the 
dual and the triple alliance, the great powers on the 
and the continent were divided into two hostile camps. It 

Dual required no little tact for England to steer a clear 

lanees. course between them. The ever-open Eastern question, 
and the movement of R'u.ssia towards India, made difficult our 
dealings with that power, while the Egyptian problem, and colonial 
differences all over the g-lobe, involved us in disputes with France. 
Moreover, many points of colonial and commercial interest made 
our attitude to Germany somewhat uneasy. Salisbury did his 
best to smooth matters over, and in 1890 he made a treaty which 
limited the English and German spheres in Africa. In return for 
various concessions, of which the chief was the abandonment to 
England of all claims to Zanzibar, Salisbury conceded the little 
island of Heligoland, one of our spoils of the Napoleonic period, to 
Germany. The result was that our relations to the German 
Empire became a little less strained. 

6. At home Salisbury's government effected much good work. 
In 1887 it celebrated the Jubilee, or fiftieth year of Yictoria's reign. 
The Queen's Among its new laws was the act of 1888, which set up 
Jubilee, elective county councils, and transferred the local 

government of the various shires from the magistrates 
in quarter sessions to these popular bodies. In the same year 
Goschen reduced the interest on the national debt from three to 



-1893.] VICTORIA— HOME RULE AND THE EMPIRE 689 

two and three-quarters, and finally to two and a half per cent. In 
1889 a scheme for adding to the numbers and efficiency of the royal 
navy was successfully set to work. 

7. The opposition to the Salisbury government gradually 
increased in strength. It was fiercely assailed by G-ladstone, now 
over eighty years of age, and resolutely bent on carry- j, j. ,, 
ing through his Home Rule scheme before he abandoned Gladstone 
public life. Accordingly, the next general election, ministry, 
which took place in July, 1892, was fought keenly, 

and with very even results. A small Gladstonian majority of forty 
resulted from the polls, though this was only on the understand- 
ing that the Irish Home Rule vote was entirely cast on its side. 
This proving to be the case, the Salisbury government was defeated, 
and Grladstone formed his fourth cabinet. Small as was his 
majority, his government showed remarkable discipKne and cohe- 
sion, and remained in power for over three years. In 1893 he laid 
before parliament a new Home Rule Bill which differed widely 
from the bill of 1886. The Irish parliament was now to include 
an upper house, elected by ratepayers with a some- rri, t ^ 
what high property qualification ; and besides her local reject the 

parliament, Ireland was to send eighty members to Home Rule 
^ . Bill 1893 

Westminster with votes on all questions of general 

imperial policy. This measure was carried through the House of 

Commons, but decisively rejected by the House of Lords. 

8. A great outcry was raised against the House of Lords, which 
was denounced for standing in the way of the wishes of the repre- 
sentatives of the people, though, in truth, public opinion 

was so evenly divided that an authority, which pre- the'ciu)"^ 
vented the carrying into effect the will of a bare 
majority of the Commons, discharged a useful function. By 
declining to dissolve parliament, and thus to appeal to the people 
against the Lords, the ministry showed that \\ had no great con- 
fidence of obtaining a majority in the elections, though it was clear 
that the Lords' veto could not be maintained if, as on other occasions, 
a decided vote of the people had been given in favour of the iaeasure 
they had rejected. Instead of this, the government remained in 
office, though it was more than likely that, under such circum- 
stances, the Lords would throw out all their measures wliich it 
disliked. It was hoped that this action of the Lords would " fill 
up the cup " of grievances, and would make it possible to go to 
the country later with a demand for the reform or abolition of 
the upper house. 



690 VICTORIA — HOME RULE AND THE EMPIRE* [1894- 

9. Before this policy could be worked out, grave clianges took 
place in the ministry. Early in 1894 the aged prime minister 
The Rose- resigned office, bitterly disappointed at the fate of his 
bepy cherished measure, but unable to contend any longer 
ministpy, against the infirmities of years. He died three years 

later. With aU his limitajfcions, G-ladstone stood head 
and shoulders above his rivals, and none of his successors could hope 
to possess either his wonderful hold over the House of Commons 
or his unique powers of appealing to the emotions and imaginations 
of the electorate. The queen chose as his successor Lord E,osebery, 
who was looked upon with suspicion by the more radical elements 
in the party, and remained little more than a year in office. During 
this period, a great number of bills were laid before the House of 
Commons, but few of them were carried. The most solid achieve- 
ments of the government were therefore in administration and 
finance. Conspicuous among these were the successful foreign 
policy of Eiosebery himseK, and the popular budgets of the chan- 
cellor of the exchequer. Sir William Harcourt, who, by raising 
the death duties, and extending the principle of graduated taxation, 
sought to make the rich contribute a larger share to the national 
revenue than had previously been the case. Sir William Harcourt, 
who became Gladstone's successor as leader of the Commons, re- 
presented that section of the party which was discontented with 
Lord E-osebery. These personal divisions reduced the energy of 
the government, and the Irish lost interest in it when it showed 
no eagerness to revive Home Rule. At last, in June, 1895, the 
government was beaten in the Commons in an unimportant division, 
and, welcoming this defeat as an opportunity for escaping from an 
intolerable position, at once resigned. Lord Salisbury then became 
premier for the third time. His ministry mainly differed from that 
of 1886 by including in it a large number of the Liberals ^ho had 
opposed Home !Rule. 

10. Conservatives and Liberal-Unionists were now becoming 

bound together into a single party. Of the Conservative chiefs. 

The thipd Iiord Salisbury again combined the duties of foreign 

Salisbupy secretary and prime minister, while A. J. BaKour 

ministpy, ^^g leader of the Commons. The Liberal-Unionists 
1895-1901 

were represented by Lord Hartington, who had recently 

become duke of Devonshire, and Chamberlain, who was made 

colonial secretary. Parliament was at once dissolved, and the 

elections in July gave the Unionist government a majority of 

more than a hundred and fifty. The ministry remained in office 



J 



-1895-] VICTORIA — HOME RULE AND THE EMPIRE 69 1 

for the rest of the queen's reign. With so large a majority, it 
held an unassailable position in parliament, and was further helped 
by the dissensions which broke out within the opposition. Home 
Rule policy became discredited by the factions of the Irish party 
and their avowed sympathy with our foreign enemies. Moreover, 
the Liberals were rent by grave schisms, which resulted in the 
withdrawal of Lord E-osebery and his chief opponent Sir William 
Harcourt from active political life. Ultimately the party found a 
leader in Sir Henry CampbeU-Bannerman. 

11. Foreign policy largely absorbed the new ministry, and 
fiercely divided English public opinion. The atrocities worked by 
the Turks in Armenia revived the Eastern question 

in a new and acute form. Great indignation was ^Tr^e^e 
felt in England at the systematic massacres of the 
Armenians by the Turks, and the government was strongly 
urged to interfere. But no other power would give England any 
help, and it was thought likely that isolated action on her part 
would have brought about general European war, especially since 
Russia, entirely deserting her former policy, showed extreme 
friendliness to Turkey, and no help was to be expected by us from 
Germany. A further complication arose when Crete, an island 
inhabited by Greeks, rose in revolt against the sultan, and obtained 
much sympathy, especially from the Greek kingdom. In 1897 
Greece indiscreetly went to war against the Turks, but her badly 
led armies were easily beaten, and she was soon forced to sue for 
peace. The chief European powers forced the Turks to give easy 
terms to the Greeks, and at last took the Cretan question into 
their own hands. After much delay they obtained the withdrawal 
of Turkish troops, and garrisoned the island with English, French, 
Russian, and Italian soldiers. The Cretans wished for union with 
Greece, but were forced to be content with emancipation from the 
Turkish yoke under the government of a Greek prince. 

12. In the Cretan, as in the Armenian question, the govern- 
ment was much blamed for not taking a more vigorous part 
against the Turks, but the other difficulties with which other 
Britain had to contend during these years account foreign 

for her inaction. In 1895 a dispute arose between the troubles. 
United Kingdom and Venezuela with regard to the boundaries of 
British Guiana. It became dangerous when the United States 
claimed the right of settling the matter, and much iU-will arose 
between England and America on the subject. Ultimately, how- 
ever, the outlook became quieter, and finally the question was 



692 VICTORIA — HOME RULE AND THE EMPIRE [1895- 

decided by an arbitration, wbicli gave most of the disputed 
territory to Britain. To make matters worse, came the trouble in 
South Africa, which culminated in Jameson's Raid (see page 725). 
The G-erman emperor showed signs of supporting the Transvaal, 
and the indignation felt in England at his action did something to 
distract attention from our dispute with America. Fortunately 
our relations with America have been improving ever since. 



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EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 



More serious were the difficulties with France, which complicated 
our uneasy relations with Germany and America. 

13. Besides minor troubles, the position of Britain in Egypt 
gave cause for much discontent in France. There the English 
The con- ^^^' ""^^^i®^ "^^^ "^^^^ administration of Lord Cromer, 

quest of the restored the reign of law, civilization, and economy, 
and Sir Herbert Kitchener had built up, out of the 
Egyptian peasantry and the blacks of the upper Nile, 
a well-drilled and efficient army. The Sudan was now ruled by 
the Khalifa, the successor of the Mahdi, and for many years the 
fanatics of the south threatened to overrun Egypt itself. At last, 



Sudan, 
1896-1899. 



-1 898. J VICTORIA — HOME RULE AND THE EMPIRE 693 

in ]898, the English resolved on the reconquest of the Sudan. 
The heart of the Khalifa's empire was assailed by a mixed force of 
English and Egyptian troops, and on September 1, the power, of 
the Khalifa was destroyed in a decisive battle fought outside 
OTYidurinan, his new capital, which had grown up opposite the 
ruined town of Khartum. The victor of Omdurman was made 
Lord Kitchener of Khartum, and the work of civilization, which 
had done so much good in Egypt, was extended, amid extraordinary 
difficulties, to the Sudan. 

14. The French were mortified at the reconquest of the Sudan, 
and made an open attempt to block our further progress in that 
region. A French officer, Major Marchand, worked 

his way with a little force from the coast to Fashoda, 1390° *' 
a place much higher up the Nile than Khartum. 
Thereupon the French were peremptorily ordered to withdraw 
Marchand or face the consequences. French feeling was violently 
roused by this action, and war between the two countries seemed to 
be very near, but France was weakened by internal dissensions, 
and Russia, her ally, was unwilling to provoke a great war for the 
sake of a desert in Central Africa. Accordingly, France gave way, 
and in 1899, signed a treaty which admitted that the whole Nile 
valley lay within the British sphere of influence. Other subjects 
of dispute were already settled. The result was that relations 
between the two powers became much less strained, and, after a few 
years, the old cordiality was completely restored. 

15. A fresh problem for Western statesmen was now supplied 
by China. In 1894 and 1895 there was war between China and 
Japan. In this struggle Japan won an easy victory. Troubles in 
and revealed to the world that a new great power had the Far 
arisen in the East, which had so well assimilated the ^^^^• 
lessons of Western civilization that she was ready to match Euro- 
peans on their own ground. The immediate result of the Japanese 
triumph was seen in the apparent decay of her defeated rival, and 
the chief powers of East and West at once began to form schemes 
for profiting by the threatened fall of the Chinese Empire. Russia, 
France, and Germany sought from the Chinese grants of '* spheres 
of influence," within which their respective subjects should have 
the monopoly of trade. England, on the other hand, strove to 
maintain the policy of the " open door," by which all China was 
equally thrown open to foreign commerce. At first the change of 
Chinese policy led to a great extension of trade with Europe, in which 
England took a leading share. But complications soon followed. 



694 VICTORIA — HOME RULE AND THE EMPIRE [1901. 

Russia established herself in Manchuria, whereupon Britain and 
G-ermany acquired Cliinese ports and territory. In 1900 the 
Chinese hatred of foreigners burst out afresh in the sudden attack- 
on the European legations at Pekin by rebels called Boxers, with 
the connivance, however, of the Chinese government. The 
legations defended themselves bravely, while a hastily collected 
international European army forced its way to Pekin and effected 
their liberation. China was for some months at war with Euroj)e, 
but at last an agreement was patched up. 

16. At home the government's acts included the extension of 
elective county councils to Ireland, the increase of the state grants 
Diamond ^^ voluntary schools, and some attempt to organize 
Jubilee, secondary education. In 1897 the Empire celebrated 

1897, and ^liat was called the Diamond Jubilee, or the sixtieth 

deatii of 

Queen year of Victoria's reign. In 1900, on the imagined 

Vietopia, conclusion of the Boer War, a new general election 
gave the government a majority of a hundred and 
thirty. About this time the health of the aged queen, which had 
hitherto remained extraordinarily good, began to decline. She died 
on January 22, 1901, after a reign which had happily surpassed in 
length all other reigns in our history. Her eldest son was pro- 
claimed Edward vii. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE UNITED KINGDOM IN THE NINE- 
TEENTH CENTURY 

1. The decay of tlie effective power of tlie crown after tlie death 
of George iii. made tlie king's ministers mainly dependent upon 
the House of Commons, and as three successive , e e f 
Reform Acts rendered the House of Commons a more the func- 
and more popular body, they thus became for most tions of the 
practical purposes the ministers of the people. There 
was some danger, clearly seen by a shrewd observer like Prince 
Albert, lest parliamentary government might prove weak govern- 
ment. Men feared that a state depending on the whims of a i)opular 
assembly might fail to carry out a firm and consistent policy. This 
danger became the greater since a strong tendency set in after the 
middle of the century towards extending on every side the work of 
the state. Bitter experience had shown that leaving individuals or 
classes to follow their own selfish instincts had resulted in grave 
evils. Accordingly the state gradually concerned itself with 
checking the bad results of fierce competition. It sought to 
provide for the workmen clean, healthy, and properly fenced work- 
shops ; to save the helpless from unsuitable or excessive toil ; to 
procure for every child a proper education, and for every household 
a fitting dwelling ; to control the giant monopolies which the 
modern system had brought into being, and to sweeten men's lot by 
providing means and time for recreation, study, and refreshment. 

2. AH this increased work of the state involved the building 
up of fresh machinery for its execution. New government 
departments were organized. The two secretaries of 
state of the eighteenth century were gradually increased govern- 
to six. Secretaries of state were created, charged re- "^®'^^' 
spectively with the work of the Home, Colonial, Foreign, War, 
Indian and Scottish departments. As the lord-lieutenant of 
Ireland became more limited to the ceremonial duties of the 

695 



696 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY [1820- 

mock court at Dublin, liis cliief secretary became in nearly all 
matters the minister for Ireland. Tbe Board of Trade, wbich. 
began under William iii., became increasingly important. New 
branches of the government arose in such bodies as the Local 
Government Board and the boards for education and agriculture. 
So great has been this increase in the number of government 
departments that the cabinets of the later nineteenth century were 
swollen to numbers nearly approaching twenty. As the heads of 
all these offices were chosen, after the English fashion, from their 
position in parliament and the country, rather than for their know- 
ledge of their special work or their capacity as administrators, they 
were forced into contenting themselves with the general oversight 
of their departments, while the details of the work were done by a 
paid and trained staff of permanent officials. Fortunately, the 
English civil service has always been non-party and permanent. 
The influence and knowledge of the official class has accordingly 
done much to balance the evils of party government controlled by 
a popular chamber, though it has dangers of its own in the liability 
of officials to be enslaved by " red tape " and routine. By this time 
entrance into the civil service was secured by open competition. 

3. Local government, like the central administration, became 
increasingly complicated. For the greater part of the period the 
Local administration of the English country districts remained 
govern- with the Quarter Sessions of the Justices of the Peace, 
^^'^ a class largely made up of the landed gentry. In Ireland 
the same class ruled the shires through the Grand Juries. Local 
seK-government was, after 1888, extended to the counties of 
England, Scotland, and Ireland by means of popularly elected 
County Councils. In corporate towns the oligarchical rule of self- 
elected corporations was destroyed by the Municipal Corporation 
Reform Act of 1835, and by the subseq[uent creation of new 
corporate boroughs in the case of populous places like Manchester 
and Birmingham. In the country districts elective Parish and 
District Councils have extended the same principle to the smaller 
areas into which the shires are divided. The local authorities 
have extended their sphere of action even more conspicuously than 
the central state, and provide gas, water, tramways, and many 
other services for their constituents. The county councils received 
by the Act of 1902 the responsibility for the control of education 
within their spheres. 

4. The army, which fought so bravely under Wellington, was only 
kept in discipline by flogging and sternness during its twenty-one 



-I90I.J THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 697 

years of service. The officers, though, mostly high-spirited gentle- 
men, were ignorant of the art of war until they were brought face 
to face with the enemy, and in peace time were as idle 
and undisciplined as their men. The army administra- army, 

tion was a marvel of complication and inefficiency. After the peace 
of 1815 there still survived some of the old jealousy of a standing 
army, and Wellington sought to hide it away in small bodies to 
prevent it getting too conspicuous. The old system went on 
through all the long peace, and finally collapsed in the needless 
miseries which it brought upon our army in the Crimean War. 
Reforms were then introduced, and a secretary of state for 
war appointed. But the commander-in-chief remained directly 
responsible to the crown, and every attempt to subordinate the 
general to the statesman was resisted as an attack on the royal 
prerogative. At last CardweU's reforms in 1870 and 1872 laid the 
foundations of a better system. The organization was simplified ; 
the evil custom of officers buying their commissions was abolished ; 
and attempts were made to provide them with some system of 
military education. Short service was introduced ; flogging was 
abolished, and ultimately the army was localized so that each 
regiment was connected with a county from which it took its 
name, and included not only at least two battalions of the line, 
but the militia of the district and the volunteer force, which, first 
raised in 1859, added largely to the number of trained men available 
for home defence. Meanwhile the development of rifled arms of 
precision, loaded at the breech, and firing with a rapidity and at a 
range undreamt of in earlier days, had revolutionized the art of 
war. Though army reform was never very complete or thorough, 
great improvements were effected both in the quality and number 
of the forces of the crown. This was shown by the rapidity with 
which, in 1899, a larger force than Britain had ever despatched 
from her shores was transported successfully to South Africa. But 
the failures of the Boer War showed that there was still need for 
further reform, and unhappily the lessons suggested by it did not 
result in the establishment of a satisfactory and rational system 
of national defence. 

5. The navy was never allowed to faU so low as the army. The 
introduction of steam brought about a revolution in maritime war- 
fare, though it was long before steam was thought 
practicable for warships. By the time of the Crimean 
War the queen's ships were propelled by steam, though they kept 
up the general appearance of the old line-of -battle ships. Their 
inability to fight against shore fortifications led to the building of 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY [1820- 

floating" batteries, protected by plates of iron. Before long armour 
plating" was employed for sea-going men-of-war; all large ships 
were built of iron, and later of steel; masts and sails almost 
disappeared, and a larg-e number of small cannon was replaced by 
a few beavy and powerful guns. Improvements in tbe steam- 
engine made it possible to move tbe unwieldy modern warsbip at a 
speed of more than twenty miles an hour. Much smaller crews were 
also required, and a large proportion of them were engineers and 
stokers, who have nothing to do with navigation or fighting, 

6. In the early part of the century the Evangelicals were the 
most active section in the Church. They were never, however, very 

numerous, though their teaching gave colour to many 
outside their own body. It was largely owing to them 
that many new churches were erected in the large towns. The mass 
of the clergy, though good natured, honest, and kindly, were want- 
ing in zeal and energy, and many of the bishops were distinguished 
by their birth, their scholarship, or by their complaisance to their 
royal and noble patrons rather than by the activity with which they 
discharged their spiritual duties. The Church was not popular. 
Nonconformity was strong among the middle classes ; the mass 
of the (population was stoKdly indifferent to church and chapel 
aHke ; and reformers resented the tenacity with which the Church 
party clung to its old exclusive privileges. It was believed that 
the reformed parliament would make short work of the Church 
altogether. 

7. The High Church tradition still survived in some country 
parsonages, and was revived soon after the Reform Bill by a small 

group of Oxford men, whose leaders were John Keble, 
Fian move- '^^^ poet of the Christian Year, Edward Bouverie Pusey, 
ment and professor of Hebrew since 1828, and, above all, John 
its results. jjgj^j.y ITewman, vicar of St. Mary's. To this little 
band the Church outlook seemed very gloomy, and they resolved to 
revive through the press the teaching of the Laudian school as to 
the Church, the ministry, and the sacraments. The result was a 
series of pamphlets called the Tracts for the Times, which were 
received with great enthusiasm by a few and with a howl of repro- 
bation from the many. But gradually the movement spread, and 
hj 1837 the Church revival had become general. The outcry 
against the Tractarian movement was still very strong, and a great 
blow feU upon it when, in 1845, Newman became a convert to the 
Church of Rome. Many of his followers followed his example, but 
the mass of the party stood firm under the quiet and diplomatic 



-I90I.] THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 699 

leadership of Dr. Pusey, from whom they were often called 
Puseyites, though they chose to call themselves the Catholic school. 
One result of the moYement was a fresh study of mediaeval art and 
practices, which led up to a revival of the symbolical ritual of the 
Middle Ages, and gave the extreme following the nickname of 
Ritualists, though the great teachers had cared little for mere 
outward forms. Despite much opposition, the devotion of many of 
the clergy of this party made their teaching acceptable to large 
numbers, and procured for them a practical toleration. The many 
efforts to put them down signally failed, and none more completely 
than Disraeli's Public Worship Regulation Act of 1874. Mean- 
while the Evangelical, or Low Church, party continued its activity, 
though it began to show signs of losing its power of spreading 
more widely. A new school of liberal or latitudinarian church- 
manship, called the Broad Church, revived the spirit of Tillotson 
and Burnet. Efforts to restrain these were as ineffective as the 
efforts to put down Ritualism. In the end each of the Church 
parties got some sort of legal recognition. Some evil has resulted 
from the strange growth of party spirit, but also a good deal of 
energy and activity which has not altogether limited itself to 
sectional channels. Vast sums were lavished on building new 
churches and in repairing old ones. The Ecclesiastical Commission, 
set up in 1836, did a great deal towards the better management 
and the more equal distribution of the estates of the Church. 
Many new bishoprics were established, and a whole hierarchy 
of colonial bishops set up, so that in 1878 ninety-five Anglican 
prelates met tog-ether in a Pan-Anglica7i Synod, and nearly two 
hundred and fifty in 1897. Convocation, which, since the reign of 
George i. had met only formally, was after 1854! again allowed to 
transact business, and as this was not a very representative body, 
voluntary Congresses and Councils have been gathered together to 
get at Church opinion more fully. All through the century the 
Church had gradually been losing its old invidious supremacy. 
However, it managed to do more work than in the days of the 
Keform Bill, and won a larger measure of esteem and support. 

8. Nonconformist bodies also increased in numbers, wealth, 
influence, and organization. The disabilities imposed upon them 
in earlier times were gradually swept away, notably in 
1828, when the Test and Corporation Acts were re- ppotestant 
pealed. In 1836 Dissenters were allowed to be married ^p^fctc 
in their own chapels, or before a registrar. In 1868 
Gladstone abolished compulsory church rates, and in 1871 most 



700 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY [1820- 

religious tests were removed at Oxford and Cambridg-e: In 1880 
tlie Burials Act allowed burials in parish, churoliyards " with any 
Christian or orderly reKg-ious service." A great change of feeling 
induced the mass of Nonconformists to adopt what was called the 
Voluntary Principle, and to maintain that the state should have 
nothing to do with religion. One result of this was the movement, 
for the disestablishment and disendowment of the state Church 
The Irish Church Act of 1869 was the chief victory of this doctrine 
under Victoria. 

9. Another feature of the century was the great growth 
of the Roman CathoKc Church in England, beginning with the 

Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829 and the repeal of 
c^tif li"^** the repressive laws of earlier times, and helped forward 

by the secession of ISTewman (cardinal in 1879), by the 
longing of many to find rest from a troubled and sceptical age 
in the bosom of an infallible Church, and by the large migra- 
tions of Irish to the English and Scotch great towns. In 1850 
a hierarchy of twelve bishops, under the archbishop of "West- 
minster, was set up, and a similar territorial episcopate was intro- 
duced somewhat later among the Roman Catholics of Scotland. 

10. In Scotland there grew up early in the century the same 
zeal for ecclesiastical independence which marked the High Church 

revival in England. Th.e Evangelical party won back 
E^^tabllshed ^ iiaajority in the general assembly, under the leader- 
Chupeh and ship of Dr. Thomas Chalmers, and sought to abolish 
the Free ^]^q right claimed by some of the Scottish landlords 
Scotland. ^^ appoint ministers to the parish churches. This was 

resisted by the patrons, who were upheld by the law 
courts, so that a great conflict arose between Church and state. 
After ten years of controversy, this was ended in 1843, when nearly 
five hundred ministers, headed by Chalmers, gave up kirk, manse, 
teinds, and glebe and formed a Free Church, in which their 
spiritual liberties were not controlled by secular laws. A large 
number of their congregations followed them, especially in the 
Highlands, and to this day the Church of Scotland has ceased to 
minister to the majority of the population. In 1874 the Patronage 
Act of 1712 was repealed, though it was too late to be of much use. 
and Scotch Presbyterianism remained split into different camps. 
Besides the Free Church, there were various older Presbyterian 
secessions, which united in 1847 to form the United' Presbyterian 
Church, distinguished from the Free Church by upholding as a 
theory the " voluntary principle." Late in the century the Free 



-1901.] THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 70I 

Cinirch and the United Presbyterians were united in a body called 
the United Free Church, despite the protests of a small minority of 
the old Free Church which still claimed to represent that body, 
and obtained decisions of the law courts in its favour. 

11. In the early years of the nineteenth century the chief 
British industries were somewhat languishing-, but, after the 
gradual introduction of free trade by Huskisson and 

Peel, progress became rapid. The population increased Material 
enormously, despite the fact that after 1847 there 
was a large and continual falling oif in Ireland, and that 
the tendency of recent years has been towards a steady decHne 
of the numbers in the purely agricultural districts in Britain. 
Wealth increased even more rapidly; and the national revenue 
mounted up in proportion. Prices fell as goods could be made 
more easily and raw materials could be brought in the cheaper 
markets. Artisans and professional men earned better salaries, 
and the income tax returns showed a steady addition to the 
number of people comfortably well off. Despite the repeal of 
the corn laws, farmers and landlords long continued as pros- 
perous as the manufacturer and tradesman. But ultimately 
the growth of foreign competition cut down the profits of agri- 
culture and made corn growing one of the least attractive forms 
of employment. The great national states which had grown up 
on the continent, especially Germany, and on the other side of 
the Atlantic the United States of America, began to prove 
formidable rivals to English manufacturers. Yet the volume 
of British trade never fell off, though capitalists had often to 
be contented with a smaller percentage of interest and traders 
with a diminished margin of profit. Though it is improbable that 
England wiU ever win back the position she once bade fair to 
obtain as the one great manufacturing and commercial nation 
of the world, she has no great reason to fear, for being every wliit 
as well situated as her competitors, she is Hkely to retain a large 
share of the world's business. 

12. There was nothing quite so striking in the annals of nine- 
teenth-century inventions as the story of the great discoveries 
which made the industrial revolution possible. Yet aU 

sorts of machinery became elaborated with a subtlety, f^fp™" 
detail, and scientific knowledge to which the eighteenth- 
century inventors were strangers, and man's control over matter 
wonderfully enlarged. This was well illustrated by the enormous 
improvements in the methods of communication by which the 



702 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY [1820- 

increased volume of trade was made possible, and notably by the 
application of steam both, to land and water carriage. Early in 
tlie century successful experiments were made in steam navigation 
both in England and in America, and in 1819 a steamboat crossed 
the Atlantic, though it was not for nearly a generation that 
improvements in engines and the utilization of the screw-propeller 
made steam navigation habitual for large ocean-going vessels. By 
the end of the century steam navigation had become so cheap that 
steamers almost superseded sailing- ships. 

13. By the early years of the nineteenth century canals had 
done a great deal for the transport of heavy goods. Hoads had 

been made smooth and hard through the improve- 
^g^ ments brought in by an engineer named Macadam, 

On them magnificently horsed coaches conveyed pas- 
sengers and mails at a rate of over ten miles an hour, both by night 
and day. Moreover, the roads were at last safe from the highwajij- 
men who had infested them in earlier times. But canals were slow 
and road transport costly, and engineers were beginning to look 
around for quicker and cheaper ways of moving heavy goods. 
In 1802 E-ichard Trevithick, a Cornishman, took out a patent 
for a steam locomotive, and in 1814 George Stephenson ran his 
first engine on a tramway used in the Tyne district for conveying 
coals to the port. So successful was this that Stephenson started 
an engine factory, and his locomotives soon began to supersede 
horses for dragging coal waggons along the mining tramways 
of Durham and ISTorthumberland. The first line on which they 
were largely used was the Stockton and Darlington Railway, opened 
in 1825. But the first really important railway for passengers as 
well as goods was the line between Liverpool and Manchester, which 
was completed in 1830. On this Line Stephenson's famous engine 
the Rochet drew a passenger train at over thirty miles an hour. 
Though looked upon with suspicion by lovers of old ways, railway 
construction upon a large scale soon set in. The first long-distance 
line was one between London and Birming'ham, built by Stephen- 
son's son Robert in 1839. Soon a network of railways, spread over 
the whole country, effected for inland commerce what steamships 
did for sea trade. Britain, the country of their first employment, 
was thus enabled to maintain her unique position among the 
trading states of the world. 

14. Later in the century other mechanical inventions still 
further increased facilities for communication. Telegraphs, patented 
in 1837, became in 1870 the property of the state, and in 1866 a 



I 



-I90I.] THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 703 

submarine cable was first successfully laid between Britain and 

America. About 1880 the telephone became utilized. More recently 

the hicycle and the motor-car have once more brought 

back traffic to the roads which became comparatively P*^^®^ 

deserted after the invention of railways. Nor should ' 

we omit to mention among the things which have furthered the 

spread of cheap communications, the introduction in 1839 of penny 

postage between any places in the United Kingdom. This boon 

was in the last years of the century extended to nearly every part 

of the British Empire. 

15. Early in the century the terrible evils of the early factory 

system still went on unheeded, while the agricultural labourer was 

a helpless and spiritless serf. Child labour in factories „ . . 

T . . , , , . , , Social and 

and mines was widespread, and wages m many trades industrial 

were so low and fluctuating that even skilled workmen Progress, 
found life a hard struggle. So gloomy was the outlook that it drove 
Robert Owen to turn his brilliant gifts from the pursuit of his 
own fortunes to schemes for improving the condition of the workers 
and for the regeneration of society. He gave the first impulse 
to factory legislation, and was the founder of English Co-operation. 
About 1820 he turned from these fruitful efforts to pursue a scheme 
of Socialism^, in which he was not at all successful. More plodding 
hands took up his practical work, and a series of Factoi'y Acts were 
passed, which limited the hours of women's and children's labour, 
and provided that workshops shoidd be properly ventilated, fenced, 
and inspected. A large measure of the credit of these measures 
was due to Michael Sadler, a Tory member of Parliament, and to 
Lord Shaftesbury, the leader of the Evangelical party in the 
Church and a zealous and unwearied pliilanthroj)ist. They were 
opposed by many of the millowners, and by the Radicals of the 
school of Bright and Cobden, who denounced them as interfering 
with individual liberty and hampering the production of wealth. 
Parallel to the growth of factory legislation went the development 
of self-help among the workers themselves. This was made pos- 
sible by the repeal, in 1824, of the Combination Laws, which 
had prevented the legal combination of workmen to protect their 
own interests. Long after this there were strong prejudices on 
the part of employers and political economists against attempts 
of workmen to join together to raise the rate of wages or to 
improve their condition. Trades Unions, thus discouraged, grew 
up under unwholesome conditions. They were often headed by 
ignorant and unreasonable men, and the strikes which, under 



704 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY [1820- 

tlieir auspices, became more numerous, were sometimes marked by 
violence, and met by repression that excited bitter feelings between 
class and class. Bit by bit things became better, and a series of 
acts, beginning in 1871, fully protected and recognized legitimate 
trade societies. By teaching self-help and by increasing the work- 
man's power, and also by acting as benefit societies on a large scale, 
trades unions have done much to raise the condition of more 
skilled labourers. Of recent years their operations have been 
extended to agricultural labourers and to the coarse and less skilled 
occupations in the g*reat towns. As organization became more 
perfect, strikes and lock-outs became less violent, and in many 
trades less frequent than before. By these various means much 
has been done to improve the condition of the mass of the people. 
The change for the better began perceptibly about 1850. Work- 
men became better fed, housed, clothed, and paid. They worked 
shorter hours, and had fuller opportunities of employing their 
leisure than the brutal drunkenness and degrading pastimes of a 
hundred years ago, thoug-h there was still need for further effort, 
and the slums of the large towns present modern life in its least 
satisfactory side. There remained too much abject misery among 
larg-e sections of the community, and too much dulness, monotony, 
and lowness of aim among those comfortably off, to give us any room 
for looking upon the undoubted social progress of the nineteenth 
century with undue or self-complacent satisfaction. 

16. None of the arts was in a satisfactory condition early in 
the nineteenth century. In architecture a somewhat incongrous 

mimicry of Greek architecture was then fashionable 
tupe -^^^ churches and public buildings, until the E-omantic 

and Tractarian attraction for the " ages of faith " 
brought about a Gothic Remval, which soon filled the whole country 
with countless imitations of the fabrics of the Middle Ages. As 
time went on these imitations became more artistic, learned, and 
appropriate, but no great school of art could ever arise from the 
mere copying of the work of earlier generations. The best result 
of the movement was to be found, not so much in the buildings 
erected under its auspices, as in the careful and loving study of 
mediaeval monuments, both at home and abroad. Unluckily, zeal 
for uniformity, love of prettiness, and conventional propriety led 
to numerous so-called restorations of old buildings, which have in 
too many cases wiped out the historical record on the pretence 
of removing incongruities and providing modern accommoda- 
tion. Later than the taste for Gothic came the study of 



-190 1.] THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 70 5 

Renaissance architecture, which was taken up by several men of 
ability. 

17. In painting" the ablest master in the early part of the 
century was the noble colourist, Jolin Constable (1776-1837), the 
effect of whose work at home and abroad has been Painting, 
second to none in this century. A greater era began music, and 
with the romantic landscapes of J. M. W. Turner sculpture. 
(1775-1851), whose work, great in oils, was unsurpassed in water- 
colours, so that under his influence there grew up a remarkable 
school of British landscape painters in the latter medium. A further 
step in advance was made when, in 1848, a knot of young artists, 
conspicuous among whom was Dante Gabriel E-ossetti, started a 
society called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which upheld an entire 
adherence to the simplicity of nature as its guiding principle. From 
their efforts sprang a lasting improvement in English art, which 
was felt far beyond the narrow limits and original conceptions of 
the actual brotherhood. In 1824 the National Gallery was founded in 
London, and as art teaching improved, a higher level of technical 
skill everywhere produced excellent results. Some of the best 
later work was to be seen in blach and white work, though the 
ancient arts of steel-engraving and mezzotint went out of fashion. 
In music, the most progressive art in modetn times, there was 
a remarkable development ; but sculpture produced few masters of 
real note. 

18. No aspect of nineteenth-century development is more im- 
portant than the growth of Natural Science. Englishmen were 
among the foremost in finding out those marvellous 

laws of nature which have so greatlv altered our Natural 

science 
whole way of looking at the universe, and in their 

applications- to the practical arts and industries, have so immensely 

increased man's command over matter. In the development of 

sciences, such as chemistry, electricity, and geology. Englishmen 

have taken a leading part, and the greatest revolution in scientific 

thought in the nineteenth century was brought about by the 

publication, in 1859, of the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. 

It was the first of a series of epoch-making books, which gradually 

led to the general acceptance of the doctrine of Evolution, or the 

theory of progress by gradual growth, which soon extended from 

biology to many other branches of knowledge. It has taught the 

fruitful method of trying to find out the origin of things by 

patient investigation of their history rather than by startling 

theories based upon their later and developed aspects. It has been 

2 B 



706 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY [1820- 

as epoct-making in tlie social sciences as in tlie study of naturej 
and the sciences of law, history, and philolog-y have been meta- 
morphosed hy its influence. More than any other single principle, 
this Sistorical Method marks out the contrast between eighteenth- 
and nineteenth-century thought. 

19. Literature has not altogether fallen short in its progress. 
We have spoken already of the Lake-scliool of poets, and of the 

singers who, in the early nineteenth century, were the 
apostles of Lihef'alisTn, or voiced the Homantic reaction 
from the shipwreck of eighteenth- century ideas through the French 
devolution. A new poetic wave surged up with the great stir of 
national life marked by the Reform Bill and the Tractarian move- 
ment. Foremost among those who grappled with the problems 
which were disturbing the new generation were Alfred Tennyson 
(1809-1892), whose work tenderly reflects the varied moods of 
nature, and Robert Browning (1812-1887), the poet-philosopher. 
In strong contrast to these stood the aesthetic school, which, like 
Keats before them, pursued art for her own sake, careless of external 
aims. This tendency seemed to centre round the exquisite sonnets 
of Rossetti, as consummate a poet as he was unique as a painter. 
It became most widely known by the musical and eloquent verse 
of Algernon Charles Swinburne, and the fresh narrative poems of 
WiUiam Morris, who was also a painter and a designer of rare 
excellence. 

20. In prose the early nineteenth century saw the spread of the 
Bomantic School by its prose fiction as well as by its verse and 

drama. The special growth of the age was in the 
novel, which continued all through the century to be 
by far the most popular form of literature. The historical and 
romantic novel, best represented by the Waverley Novels of Sir 
•Walter Scott, gradually gave way to the novel of contemporary 
Hfe, whose highest exponents include, in the middle of the century, 
WiUiam Makepeace Thackeray, the greatest of English novelists, 
and Charles Dickens, the most popular of all writers of fiction; 
and, in the next generation, the great and thoughtful work of 
G-eorge Meredith, and the popular but delicately artistic tales 
of Robert Louis Stevenson. In other aspects of letters, we 
have to note the eloquence of De Quincey ; the taste and humour 
of our greatest critic Charles Lamb ; the subtle art of John Henry 
Newman ; and the eloquent rhetoric with which the triumphs 
of Whiggism and of modern material progress were glorified 
by Thomas Babington Macaulay, the most readable, vivid, and 



-I90I.] THE NINETEENTH CENTURY JOJ 

picturesque of Mstorians, and tke best index of tke merits and 
deficiencies of Ms time. In strong- contrast to Macaulay's good- 
natured optimism stood Thomas Carlyle, tlie most influential teaclier 
of the middle part of the century, who taug-ht reverence, obedience, 
hero-worship, and the gospel of duty and work ; and Carlyle's friend 
and disciple, the ethereal John Huskin, who made art criticism, 
expressed with rare eloquence, his vehicle for expounding the moral 
and social teaching of his master. The spread of education had 
the result of bringing about an enormous growth of periodicals 
and of the newsiDaper press, whose popularity was a sign of a large 
class of people fond of reading, but not able or willing to read 
systematically and deeply. The abolition of newspaper stamps and 
of duties on paper had the good effect of reducing the price of 
nearly all newspapers to a penny, while many cost only a halfpenny. 
Another sign of the times was the great growth of a daily press in 
all the larger towns, some of which became fully as capably con- 
ducted and as influential in guiding public opinion as the London 
newspapers. Future improvement is to be hoped for rather in the 
deepening than in the extension of the habit of reading, which in 
some shape or another has almost become universal, 

21. Another characteristic feature of the nineteenth century is 
the enormous diffusion of education, the chang'e of its methods, 

the widening of its subiects, and the gradual assump- ^^ 

, . xn ^ i? XT, \l ^ i? ^ -1. • • Education. 

tion on the part oi the state oi care tor its provision, 

organization, and direction. Early in the nineteenth century few 

children of the English, and hardly any of the Irish lower classes, 

had any chance of receiving instruction, though in Scotland a 

plan projected by John Knox had been a reality since 1696, and 

every parish had had its school for over a century. Early in the 

century rival private societies, the Church National Society and the 

undenominational British and Foreign School Society, set to work 

to provide schools for the children of the poor. Their operations 

received a great impetus when, in 1833, the state began to make 

grants to help forward elementary education, and still more after 

1839, when the rudiments of an education office were organized by 

the government. But religious animosities and popular prejudice 

or indifference long made progress slow, and it was not until 1870 

that Forster's EducoMon Act supplemented the self-denying efforts 

of individuals by establishing compulsory education and a reaUy 

national system. Even after this secondary education remained 

entirely at the mercy of voluntary effort and individual munificence. 

In 1868 and 1869 the Public Schools Act and the Endowed Schools 



708 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY [1901. 

Ad laid down tlie principle that it was the business of the state 
to see that educational trusts were strictly carried out, and that 
antiq^uated schemes should be revised and brought up to date. The 
care of the state was thus gradually extended from elementary to 
secondary education, and this process went on gradually widening 
until the JEducation Act of 1902 charged the county councils 
everywhere with the responsibility of the oversight of aU forms of 
education within their respective areas. The state direction of the 
higher types of education was to be seen in the appointment of 
commissions which, in 1854, and again in 1877, strove to bring the 
universities of Oxford and Cambridge more abreast of modern 
times. Conspicuous features of educational progress in recent 
years have been the establishment of new universities in several of 
the greater towns of England, and also in Wales and Ireland, the 
wide diffusion of technical schools for the promotion of skill in 
applied science and handicrafts, and the great increase in the 
number of good secondary schools in all parts of the country. 
These innovations were the more far-reaching since in all the new 
universities and colleges women were admitted on terms of sub- 
stantial eq[uality with men, while the new schools included a large 
number of high schools for girls and of dual schools open to boys 
a>nd girls alike. 



1 



CHAPTER VII 

BRITISH INDIA IN THE NINETEENTH 
CENTURY (1820-1901) 

Chief Dates : 

1826. First Burmese War. 

1828. Lord William Bentinck Governor. 

1839. Afghan War. 

1843. Conquest of Sind. 

1845. First Sikh War. 

1849. Conquest of the Punjab. 

1848. Lord Dalhousie Governor. 

1857. Indian Mutiny. 

1858. End of East India Company. 
1877* Victoria Empress of India. 
1878. Second Afghan War. 

1898. Afridi War. 

1. The close of tlie j^apoleonic wars saw England dominant in 
India and making g'ood progress towards the development of a 
new colonial empire wherewith, to replace the lost x^e Indian 
American colonies. The position which she had won and colonial 
as mistress of the seas enabled her to carry ont both 
tasks with little interference from any other nation, and to profit 
by the weakness of France and her involuntary allies to appropriate 
for herseK the remnants of their Indian and colonial power. 
Nothing in the nineteenth century is more pregnant with results 
for the future than this consummation of the process by which 
Britain ever since the beginning of the seventeenth century has 
been extending her tongue, peoj^le, and traditions over distant 
continents, and winning for her empire the most ancient civiliza- 
tions of the East. The nineteenth-century development both 
of our Indian empire and our new colonial system has been so 
independent of our internal liistory and of European complications, 
that it win be simplest for us to study them separately, apart from 
the record of the domestic history of Britain. 

2. In India the genius of CKve, Hastings, and Wellesley had 

709 



7IO BRITISH INDIA [1820- 

secured for England a large amount of territory directly nnder her 
sway, and a paramount position over the whole of the peninsula. 
British The greatest aggregate of country governed imme- 

India in diately by the British was in the valley of the Ganges. 

1820. rp^ Bengal and Behar, annexed in 1765, had heen 

added the Upper and Lower Doab and Hohilkhand, taken in 
1801-1803, which extended our territory to the rich districts 
of the Upper Granges, and included Delhi, the old capital of the 
Mogul emperors. In 1803, Orissa, the coast district to the 
south-west c I Calcutta, had also been absorbed. These regions 
jointly cons ituted the jpresidency of Bengal, and were directly 
ruled by the governor-general from Calcutta. South of Orissa the 
Circars (176 )) and the Karnatik (1801) extended the Madras jpresi- 
dency alon^ the whole eastern coast as far as Cape Comorin. 
Besides this, Ceylon, acquired from the Dutch during the ^N^apoleonic 
wars, became also British, though then as now separately governed 
from continental India. In the west the BoTnhay presidency up 
to 1818 included but a very small area of actual British lands, and 
was still closely pressed in the interior by the territories of the 
Maratha chieftains, who had only been temporarily cowed by 
their defeats at Assaye and Argaum. However, in 1817-1818 the 
third Mardthd war led to the absorption of the whole dominions 
of the Peshwa into the Bombay presidency, which thus assumed 
dimensions not much inferior to those of the eastern seats o£ 
British power. Moreover, the beginning of the Central Provinces 
of a later date were now made by other annexations. 

3. The British overlordship was at the same time extended 
over the most powerful of the native princes. Hojkar and the 
The Indian Gr^ekwar were forced to sign subsidiary treaties, such 
vassal as the other Maratha lords had already been corn- 

states in pelled to accept. The result of this was a complete 
destruction of Maratha independence, and the estab- 
lishment of peace and sound rule in regions long devastated by the 
Maratha hordes and their allies, the freebooting Pindaris. The 
warlike princes of Eajputana, long the victims of Maratha inroads, 
now gladly accepted British supremacy. In the north the nawab 
of Oudh, whose lands were surrounded by British territory ; in the 
Deccan the nizam ; and in the extreme south the raja of Mysore, — 
were closely bound by the subsidiary treaties negotiated in Wel- 
lesley's governorship. Only in the extreme north was there now 
a strong and independent native state. This was the monarchy 
which Ranjit Singh had established over the Sikhs of the Punjab. 



-I90I.] BRITISH INDIA 



711 



The Sikhs were warHke Hindu devotees who had revolted from the 
Mogul Empire, and had courage and faith enough to make them 
really formidable. But Ranjit Singh made a pointof keeping on 
good terms with the English, so that, though he commanded great 
military resources, there was no trouble with the Sikhs until after 
his death in 1839. 

4. The third Maratha war had been fought during the governor- 
generalship of the marquis of Hastings, who ruled India from 
1814 to 1823. Under his successor, Lord Amherst, a 
nephew of Chatham's favourite general, the chief event shir^ofLord 
was the jirst Burmese war, which led, in 1826, to the William 

annexation of Assam and Arakan to the Bengal presi- ?ooi^^ooV 
J * 1 J T T o J/ 1828-1835. 

aency. Amherst was succeeded as governor by Lord 

William Bentinck, a younger son of the duke of Portland, prime 
minister in 1783 and 1807. An ardent Whig and an enthusiastic 
reformer. Lord William made his rule memorable, not by conquests, 
but by his self-denying efforts to improve the condition of the vast 
populations committed to his charge. He had the courage to put 
down the ancient Hindu custom of ^ati, or widow-burning, despite 
the outcry of Hindus and Anglo-Indians, who thought that a revolt 
would follow an attack on so long-cherished a superstition. He 
also stamped out Tliagi, and rooted out the brotherhoods of thags, or 
hereditary murderers, who had wandered over the whole country in 
disguise, and made a trade of strangling. He sought to educate 
the higher classes of the native races in Western literature and in 
the English language. He removed the old restrictions on mis- 
sionaries, and encouraged steam navigation on the Ganges. He 
set his face against further annexations ; he strove to extend 
freedom of speech and writing, and opened the public services to 
the native races. He often pursued these laudable aims by methods 
too Western to suit the circumstances of India, and set the class- 
feeling of the Anglo-Indians strongly against him. But he was 
strongly supported by the Whig governments of the period of the 
reform movement. In 1833 the East India Company's charter was 
renewed on terms which fitted in with the liberal character of 
Bentinck's acts. By it the company was forced to abandon its 
commercial monopolies and its trading activity. The limitation of 
the governing corporation to administration and patronage greatly 
improved the tone of its policy, and reacted favourably on the 
character of British rule in India. 

5. Under Lord Auckland, the next governor-general (1836-1842), 
troubles broke out with Afghanistan, a mountainous country beyond 



712 , BRITISH INDIA [1820- 

the western moimtain borders of India, inhalbited by scattered 
tribes of warlike and enthusiastic Mobammedans, wbo bad for 

more tban a century made tbemselves the terror of 
war, llsl^ I^ortbern India. Alarmed by the intrigues of Russia 
1 842. yA^ Dost Mubammad, amir of Afghanistan, Auckland 

resolyed to drive him from his throne, and restore his rival Sh^h 
Sliuja, then an exile in British India. It was a task both dangerous 
atld unnecessary, but in 1839 was safely accomplished. Shdh Shuj^ 
was restored, but even a strong army at Kabul, the capital, could 
not maintain the new-comer in his throne. The Afghans revolted, 
and pressed the English garrison at Kabul so hard that its com- 
mander, General Elphinstone, a weakly old man, inadequate for so 
great a charge, was glad to accept the offer of the rebel leader,, 
Akbar Khan, Dost Muhammad's son, to allow him to retire in safety 
to British territory. But Akbar would not, or more probably could 
not, keep his promise. As the panic-stricken army wound their 
way through the defiles of the passes of the Khurd-Kabul and the 
Khaibar, fierce mountaineers, lining every height, shot down the 
hapless fugitives as they dragged on in helpless disorder, suffering 
intensely from the cold and snows of the hard Afghan winter. 
Before long the whole force was annihilated. At last, on the 
morning of January 13, 1842, a sentry from the walls of Jalalabad 
saw a single white man clinging wearily to the neck of a tired-out 
pony that could hardly drag him along. He was the sole survivor 
of the army of 4500 men, with its 12,000 followers, which had 
marched , out of Kabul a week before. ^Next spring Afghanistan 
was invaded, the prisoners rescued, and a show made of punishing 
the offenders. In the end, Dost Muhammad was restored to his 
throne, and the war resulted in absolutely no change in the 
position of Afghanistan, though it did much to reveal to the enemy 
the limitations of the British power. 

6. The conclusion of the Afghan war was fought under Lord 
EUenborough, a vigorous but vain and pompous ruler, who was 

governor- general from 1842 to 1844. In 1843 Sir 
The eon- Charles l!^apier defeated the amirs of Sind, the district 
Sind, 1843, ^^ ^^ Lower Indus, at the battle of Midni, from which 
and the followed the conquest of Sind and its annexation to 

w^p ^845. *^^ Bombay presidency. Under Lord Hardinge (1844- 

1848), the next governor-general, trouble broke out with 
the Punjab, which had become hostile to the British since Hanjit 
Singh's death, and anxious to try its strength against the power 
which had failed so signally in Afghanistan. In 1845 a very hard- 



'I90I-] BRITISH INDIA 713 

fougM war was waged with the gallant Sikhs. E-anjit's army 
proved a magnificent instrument of warfare, and the headstrong 
valour of Lord Grough exposed the British troops to terrible losses 
at the hands of the most desperate foe against whom they had ever 
•fought in India. However, they were at last forced to make their 
submission. A young son of Ranjit's was made nominal ruler 
of the Punjab, but an English resident was appointed at Lahore 
to control the policy of those who ruled in his name. The inde- 
pendence of the Sikhs was thus brought to an end. 

7. From 1848 to 1856 India was ruled by the marquis of Dal- 
housie, whose government proved more eventful than any since the 
days of Wellesley, both as regards extension of territory 

and internal progress. His first difiiculty arose from a Annexation 
revolt of the Sikhs, who bore with impatience the loss jab, 1849, 
of their freedom, and raised the whole Punjab in 1848. and Lower 
The whole of the Sikh district feU away, and early in fgg^^' 
1849 Gougli fought the battle of Chilianwala, where the 
victorious march of the British through a thick jungle against the 
well-protected Sikh batteries was checked by the panic-flight of our 
cavalry, so that the brave infantry suffered enormous losses, and, 
though the enemies' position was captured, many trophies of victory 
fell into the Sikhs' hands, l^ext month Gough put down the 
revolt in the decisive victory of Gujrat. The Punjab was then 
annexed ; and the energy of DaUiousie, weU seconded by the brothers 
Lawrence, built up a system of mixed military and civil rule, which 
soon reduced the Punjab to obedience and contentment. Hence- 
forth the remarkable military capacity of the Sikh levies was to be 
used on the British side, and before long this was to prove the 
salvation of our Indian empire. In 1852 Dalhousie fought the 
second Burmese war, which resulted in the annexation of Lower 
Burma and the great trading station of Rangoon. 

8. A special feature of Dalhousie's rule was the wholesale an- 
nexation of native states. Disregarding the universally recognized 
Hindu custom of adopting heirs to childless princes, Dalhousie's 
Dalhousie laid down his famous doctrine of lapse, and Doctrine of 
freely absorbed states whose rulers' bodily heirs had ^P^e. 
died out. Thus, in 1853, .N'd-gpur was seized on the death of the 
last of the Bhonslas. Moreover, the nizd,m was forced to sur- 
render Berar; while, in 1856, Oudh was forcibly annexed, on 
account of the shameful misgovernment of the last of the nawabs 
of that region. By these annexations the modern boundaries of 
British India were in substance attained. Dalhousie applied the 

2 B 2 



714 BRITISH INDIA [1820- 

same doctrine of lapse to the pensioned princes who had ceased 
to rule. Among others, he refused to recog-nize the claims of 
IsT^na Sahib, the adopted heir of the last of the Peshwas. Acts 
such as these, based on disregard of Hindu tradition, did more 
to excite native feeling against the governor than his down- 
right annexations. And the swift, stern rush of Dalhousie's re- 
forms in the administration did not always take sufficiently into 
account the unconquerable conservatism of India and the strength 
of local prejudice. With all allowances, however, Dalhousie re- 
mains among the greatest of Anglo-Indian statesmen. 

9. In 1856 Dalhousie, broken down by his strenuous labours, 
went home to die, and was succeeded as governor by Ipord Canning, 

the son of G-eorge Canning, the famous statesman, 
ning and" Canning had been Kttle more than a year in India 
the Indian when a formidable Tnutiny of the native army of 
18^7^^' Bengal placed British rule in the utmost peril. Since 

the Crimean war India had been dangerously denuded 
of British-born troops, and the sepoy or native forces had been 
alternately pampered by foolish indulgences and irritated by 
ignorant offences done to their racial and religious sentiments. 
At last a real panic was produced when an improved musket, the 
Enfield- rifle, was issued to the Bengal army, the ammunition for 
which required greased cartridges, the end of which the soldier 
had to bite off before loading the gun. The Hindu was convinced 
that the new ammunition was greased with the sacred fat of cows, 
and the Mussulman thought it was lubricated with the contaminat- 
ing lard of swine. A rumour arose that the government meant 
to destroy their caste and their faith. A wild panic broke the 
habits of years, and a general mutiny was skilfully and secretly 
planned. The rising broke out at Meerut, and soon spread over all 
Northern and Central India, affecting a large portion of the 
Bengal army. It was at its worst at Delhi, where the Moham- 
medans hoped to revive the Mogul Empire, and in the recently 
annexed region of Oudh, where the whole people, headed by the 
nobles, joined the rebels, and reduced the English power to a few 
hard-beset garrisons, such as those at Cawnpur and Lucknow. 
K^na Sahib declared himseK to be the Peshwa, and headed the 
mutineers at Cawnpur. Before long the Cawnpur garrison sur- 
rendered, and was butchered in cold blood by orders of the 
Njina. Luckily the armies of Bombay and Madras, separated 
by language and tradition from the Bengal sepoys, remained 
true. The leading native princes were also strongly loyal, among 



-I90I.] BRITISH INDIA 715 

those conspicuous for their fidelity being the Marath^ princes, 
Holkar and Sindhia, and the powerful nizam. Lower Bengal 
even, though disturbed, remained for the most part in British 
hands, and the Punjab was not only loyal, but contributed a large 
force of warlike Sikhs to the forces which were rapidly collected 
to deal with the mutineers on the Upper and Middle Ganges. 
A force, partly British and partly Sikh, marched south from the 
Punjab, captured Delhi after a long siege, while General Have- 
lock moved up the Ganges to Lucknow, and relieved the famished 
garrison. This marked the turn of the tide. Next year (1858) 
the remnants of the mutiny were stamped out with a cruelty 
which rivalled that of the mutineers themselves during their 
short moment of triumph. The last places to resist were in 
the Maratha districts round Bombay, where many of the local 
forces had deserted their loyal princes and rallied round Ndna 
Sahib. In the worst days of the mutiny. Canning had shown rare 
presence of mind and determination, and did much to limit the 
wild reprisals of the victors. 

10. The mutiny sealed the fate of the East India Company, 
whose political power, by a strange anomaly, had outlasted its 
trading days. In 1858 the Derby ministry carried an „ , „ , 
India Bill, by which the company was dissolved and East India 
the government of India transferred to the crown. Company, 
acting through a secretary of state and an expert 

council, which replaced the board of control. The local ad- 
ministration was placed under a viceroy, to whom all the provinces, 
including even Bombay and Madras, were henceforth subordinate. 
The company's European army was amalgamated with the forces 
of the crown, and its navy abolished. Canning became the first 
viceroy, but in 1862 he went home, like Dalhousie, with broken 
health, and died immediately after his return. 

11. A long period of comparative calm, marked by the avoidance 
of fresh conquest, and by careful attention to internal reforms and 
economic development, made the history of the period Railways 
which succeeded the mutiny stand in strong contrast and ^ 

to the warlike activity and confusion of the days of f^mmes. 
Dalhousie and Canning. A network of railways was extended 
over the whole of India, and made it easier to deal with the periodic 
famines, which, however, still remain the worst curse of India. 
The opening of the Suez Canal brought Britain and her great 
dependency into much closer relations. 

12. In 1877 the queen assumed the title of empress of India. 



yi6 BRITISH INDIA [1820- 

Soon after came tlie most stirring episode in later Indian history, 

the second Afghan war of 1878 to 1880. Its origin, like that of 

„ , its predecessor, lay in the jealousy of the British 

Afghan government of the intrigues of Russia with the 

War, amir. These intrigues were peculiarly resented at 

1878-1880 r >j 

a time when the relations of England and Hussia 

had been much strained by the events of the Russo- Turkish war 
which had just been concluded. On the refusal of Sher Ali, the 
amir, to receive an English mission. Lord Lytton, the viceroy, 
overran Afghanistan, and drove Sher Ali to take flight in Central 
Asia. His son accepted the English terms, surrendered the passes 
beyond the Indus, and strove to reign with British help. As in 
1842, an Afghan rising soon drove the weak amir from the throne. 
But G-eneral Roberts was now sent with a strong force, with 
which he occupied Kabul. In 1880, however, it was resolved to 
abandon Afghanistan, and a treaty was made with the nephew and 
old rival of Sher Ali, Abdur Rahman, who was then the strongest 
force in the country. By it the new acquisitions made by the 
previous treaty were relinq[uished. Abdur Rahman, left to himself, 
soon made himself undisputed amir. The only chance of a united 
and friendly Afghanistan, strong enough to prove an efficient 
barrier to Russia, was regained by this reversal of policy ; but the 
hesitation of Britain between the two methods of action was 
ominous as to the result of the growing influence of English party 
struggles on India. 

13. During the later years of Yictoria, the chief military troubles 
of British India were with the fierce frontier tribes of the north- 
India at west. Conspicuous among these were the Afridis, 
the End of a fanatical hiU tribe of warriors, who gave much 
Victoria's trouble, and necessitated great efforts before they 
could be forced into submission in 1898. In India 
itseK there was such peace as the land had never known before, 
though well-being was still limited by the chronic poverty of the 
mass of the people, and checked by a series of terrible famines. 
The very rapid increase of population, brought about since the old 
checks on growth had become weaker, raised real problems as to 
their maintenance. But manufactures beg'an to spring up to take 
away some of the surplus population from the soil, and in the 
great industrial cities of modern India the stationary stage of 
civilization was soon almost outgrown. Yet the mass of the popu- 
lation still live their old life, untouched by the manifestations of 
Western civilization which are around them, l^othing is more 



I90I.] 



BRITISH INDIA 



717 



\ 



Chitrai\o .^ 
Peshawar'i^ 

M\'^v. :)<4^^%§^- 

A] 



INDIA 

in 1906, 

illustrating the growth of 

BRITISH TERRITORY 

and 

SUPREMACY 

Eng^lish Miles 
too 200 300 400 500 




Enier>'V/alltcr »c. 



718 



BRITISH INDIA 



[♦T90T. 



remarkaHe than the constant contrast of old and new, East and 
West, wMch British India presents. We must go back to the 
eastern parts of the Homan Empire in its palmy days to find its 
like. The conquest of India is among- the greatest achievements 
of Englishmen. Its government by them is still more creditable 
and wonderful. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE BRITISH OVERSEAS DOMINIONS IN 
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY (1783-1901) 

Chief Dates : 

1788. Beginnings of Australia. 

1837. Canadian revolt. 

1838. Lord Durham Governor of Canada. 

1839. New Zealand settled. 

1851. Victoria separated from New South Wales. 

1867. Dominion of Canada established. 

l877- Annexation of the Transvaal. 

1879. Zulu War. 

1889. British South African Company established. 

1895. Jameson's Raid. 

1899. Beginning of Boer War. 

1901. Commonwealth of Australia established. 

1. While British ascendency was being extended over India, 
a new colonial empire came into being, to replace tliat wbich 
bad been lost bj the secession of the thirteen 
American colonies. After their falling away Britain ^•'^tish 
had few colonies left, save the West Indies and the lattep 
French Canada, and even in these the British paptofthe 
element was small, since the West Indies, even more century^ 
than the southern states of America, were tropical 
in their climate, so that the whites could only form a small 
aristocracy of planters and governors, leaving the tilling of the 
fields to be done by the labour of negro slaves, and in Canada 
the European element was French and not English. However, 
both these districts grew rapidly in numbers and wealth after 1783. 
A migration of ill-treated United Emjpire loyalists from the states 
of the American Union began the settlement of the Upper or 
English Canada around the great lakes, and the West India sugar 
colonies were soon at the very height of their prosperity. More- 
over, with the conscious object of replacing in some fashion the 
loss of America, a few far-seeing men were turning to the new 

719 



720 THE OVERSEAS DOMINIONS [1820- 

continfent of Australia, for the first time well known tkrough. tlie 
voyages of tlie famous navigator and discoverer, Captain Cook. 
In 1788 a small settlement was estaWished by Captain Pliillip 
on Tort Jackson, a noble harbour in New South. Wales, as the 
eastern coast of Australia was already called, where there soon 
arose the little town of Sydney, so called from the secretary of 
state of Pitt's ministry, who favoured the enterprise. But the 
settlement was on a small scale, and destined chiefly for the 
reception of convicts ; and before long the outbreak of the great 
wars against France called away British energies into other 
channels. Tet a beginning had been made of another !N^ew 
England in the Antipodes. These, with a few trading stations 
in the tropical parts of Africa, and isolated islands like the 
Bermudas and St. Helena, almost completed the list of British 
colonial possessions in the latter part of the eighteenth century. 

2. The Revolutionary and ^Napoleonic wars broug'ht back to 
England a colonial supremacy wider than ever dreamed of by 

Chatham. The immediate result of our maritime 
expansion ascendency was that the colonies of France and her 
during the compulsory allies were at our mercy, and as many as 
lullonarv seemed worth occupying were captured. The majority 
and of these conquests were given up in the peaces of 

Napoleonic 1814 and 1815, but a considerable number still remained 

in British hands. These included several West India 
islands, originally French, like Tobago, or Spanish, like Trinidad ; 
Demerara and the other portions of Gruiana, taken from the Dutch, 
which were henceforth known as British Guiana ; Cape Colony, 
ah'eady long' inhabited by Dutch farmers called Boers ; the Dutch 
island of Ceylon, and the French island of Mauritius in the Indian 
Ocean. The revolt of the negroes of San Domingo from France, 
and the establishment, in the days of Canning, of the independence 
of most of the great Spanish colonies of Southern and Central 
America, still further cleared the field of European rivals. Thus, 
after the death of G-eorge iv., the position of Britain as a colonial 
power, relative to other European states, was stronger than it had 
ever been in the eighteenth century, 

3. The new colonies were not all clear gain. Except the Cape, 
as yet of little importance, they were all of the hot tropical sort, 
Decay of ^^ which Europeans could only live as a leisurely 
the West property-owning class, and they increased the diificul- 
Indies. ^j^g which the question of negro slavery now brought 
forward. After the abolition of the slave trade, labour became 



•I901.]. THE OVERSEAS DOMINIONS 72 1 

dearer, and during- the long blockade of the continent, Europe had 
learnt to make sugar from beetroot, so that she had less need of 
colonial wares, when, after 1815, our colonies could again send 
their products to continental markets. The abolition of negro 
slavery throughout the Empire in 1834 gave a fresh blow to the 
West Indian planters ; and, last of aU, came free trade, which 
enabled foreign produce, often slave-g-rown, to crowd out the 
produce of British plantations from British markets. There were, 
moreover, difficulties with the free blacks, who settled down in 
happy sloth on their small patches of land, and could not be 
tempted to work regularly for their former masters, while their 
numbers and claim to exercise political rights, made them a 
political as well as an economic trouble. To avoid being ruled 
by the blacks, many West Indian colonies surrendered their con- 
stitutions, and preferred to be ruled despotically as crown colonies ; 
and to remedy the scarcity of labour, they sought to import coolies, 
or coloured labourers from India. These devices were but partially 
successful, and bit by bit the West Indies, once the greatest glories 
of the Empire, lost nearly aU their prosperity, which, based upon 
monopoly and slavery, could not continue in an age of free com- 
petition in trade and labour. Yet even in their ruin they remained 
magnificent monuments of their former greatness. 

4. The decay of the tropical colonies brought into greater 
prominence the colonies in temperate regions, with a population 
largely European, though not in all cases preponderat- r^^^ ^^^.^ 
ingly British. These regions had problems of their gpation 
own, for the conquests of the great wars had made move- 
many Frenchmen and Dutchmen and some Spaniards 

the subjects of the British crown. But the growth of population, 
and the amount of distress and irregularity of employment at 
home, caused many Englishmen to seek new homes for themselves 
in colonies beyond the sea, and steadily raised the population and 
proportionately increased the British element in our possessions. 

5. Other great results followed from the steady flow of emigra- 
tion from Britain. Large masses of Englislimen, freer and more 
unconventional in their ways than those left at home, phases of 
would never be satisfied with anything but the fuUest colonial 
rights of seK- government, and the lesson of the falling °^* 
away of America had taught the mother- country the necessity 
and policy of allowing them to work out their political and economic 
destinies as they themselves thought best. Unluckily, the doctrine 
first taught in revolutionary France, that colonies were for all 



722 THE OVERSEAS DOMINIONS [1820- 

time parts of the mother-couiitrj, found no eclio either in England 
or even in her colonies. Most statesmen helieved that colonies, 
when strong enough, would naturally fall away, like America, and 
took no pains to prevent such a result. Good resulted at the 
moment from this narrow policy, since the colonies' demands for 
self-government were gracefully conceded. 

6. The first step forward from the arbitrary rule of crown 
officials, which was necessary in the infancy of a new settlement, 
Growth of ^^^ ^^ grant a local Legislative Council, at first in 
colonial many instances consisting of official nominees, but 
indepen- ultimately becoming elected by the colonists them- 
selves. The second great step was when responsihle 

government was granted — ^that is to say, when the executive power 
was made to depend on the legislative. This process, granted to 
Canada in 1840, was completed for most of Australia by 1856. 
The result was colonial independence, for the only link now was 
the governor, appointed by the crown, who, however, reigned but 
did not govern, and the continued jurisdiction of the English 
privy council as the supreme court of appeal from the colonies. 
For the rest nothing but common citizenship, common traditions, 
and common love of English ways bound the colonies with the 
mother-country and with each other. 

7. This new colonial system gave the colonies not only the 
political freedom which the American colonies had had, but also 

an economic independence denied to our earlier plan- 
Federation "t^tio^s. The principle of free trade was looked upon 

as incompatible with all commercial monopoly, and 
England stood aside, even when the colonies set up protective laws 
of their own, which powerfully helped on their infant industries, 
often to the loss of those of England. But the tendency towards 
unity between neighbouring colonies led to plans of federation which 
have successfully united British North America and Australia. 
The only permanent and satisfactory way of uniting these great 
groups with each other and with the mother-country is by some 
wise scheme of Imperial Federation, which would bind together the 
British races in one of the greatest states that the world has ever 
seen. We can now best follow the history of the three great groups 
• — North America, Australia, and South Africa — in turn, and see 
how it has fared with them under this new colonial -system. 

8. During the first third of the nineteenth century the state of 
affairs in Canada was by no means satisfactory, The English in 
the Upper Province quarrelled with the French of Lower Canada, 



-I90I.] THE OVERSEAS DOMINIONS 723 

and in 1837 tlie French, rose in revolt. The rising was crushed, 
and Lord Dni-ham was sent out in 1838 by the Melbourne 
ministry to organize a new government. By his advice jhe North 
the two Canadas were united, though as a counter- Amepican 
concession the executive ministry was made directly ^°^^"*®s« 
responsible to the Canadian parliament. As time went on, the 
system of union proved a dead failure, despite the facts that Canada 
made wonderful progress after the grant of independence, and that 
the English element steadily increased. 

9. At last, in 1867, a more comprehensive system was adopted, 
by which, not only the French and Englisb elements in Canada, but 
the scattered population of the other North American xhe 
colonies, were brought together under a federal system. Dominion of 
The Dominion of Canada was established under a ^"^ ^* 
governor-general appointed by the crown, with a federal parliament 
having its seat at Ottawa, and an executive cabinet directly 
responsible to it. The adoption of the federal principle, as in the 
United States, made it easy to extend a full measure of local self- 
government to the various provinces, each of which also possessed 
its separate parliament and government. One excellent result of 
the scbeme was the separation once more of French and English. 
Canada, which, henceforth known as the provinces of Quebec and 
Ontario, were enabled to carry on their local affairs, each after its 
own fashion. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick at once joined the 
union, and soon afterwards it was also accepted by Manitoba, British 
Columbia, and Prince Edward's Island, so that Newfoundland alone 
henceforth, stood outside the Dominion. In 1885 the opening of 
the Canadian Pacific Railway set up an unbroken railway route 
from Halifax to the Pacific coast. The fertile but uninhabited 
regions of tbe West were thus opened up for settlers, and during 
the last years of the reign of Victoria this development went on at 
an ever-increasing rate. Moreover, the discovery of rich gold- 
mines at Klondyhe and elsewhere in the remote north-west, attracted 
crowds of adventurers to the desolate regions that stretch north- 
wards to the AjigHc circle. By these means the Dominion of 
Canada became a great country. 

10. Equally remarkable bas been the development of the Australian 
colonies. Tbis was very slow at first, since the original r^^ 
settlements were mere convict stations. To Sydney Common- 
(1788) was added Port Pbillip (1803), Tasmania (1804), J^^^Jl^ 
pjid the Swan River (1826), aU as penal colonies. 
Progress became possible wben the opening up of fertile pastures 



724 THE OVERSEAS DOMINIONS ' [1820- 

led to sheep-farming on a large scale, and this in its turn attracted 
free settlers. Before long the colonists refused to allow the further 
exportation of convicts to their shores. The discovery of gold- 
fields further enriched Port Phillip and its capital, Melhonrne, 
named in 1837 after the Whig prime minister. In 1851 the regions 
round these spots was separated from New South Wales and became 
the separate colony of Victoria. Other colonies were cut off — 
Queensland in 1859, in the hot but genial regions of the north-east ; 
and South Australia, established in 1836, with a capital named 
Adelaide, after William iv.'s queen. Tasmania became a separate 
government in 1856 ; and the Swan E,iver Settlement, after a 
languishing existence for a long time, received a great impetus 
through gold discoveries in its interior, and in 1890, with the name 
of Western AustraKa, received the responsible government already 
allowed to its more populous neighbours. At last, in 1901, all the 
Australian colonies were united in a federal union, called the 
CoTnTYionwealth of Australia. Besides these, the flourishing islands 
of ISerw Zealand, first settled in 1839, received a parliamentary 
constitution in 1853, and strengthened its unity in 1875 by abolish- 
ing its nine provincial councils. 

11. South Africa stands midway between colonies of the type of 
Australia and Canada and the West-Indian-planter class of settle- 
ment. It is a genuine colony, where Dutchmen since 

Africa ^^^ seventeenth century, and Englishmen in the nine- 

teenth, have settled in large numbers. But the native 
races have always been, and will certainly remain, the great 
majority of the population, so that its progress has been rendered 
slow by the conflict between European and African as well as 
by the national hostility of Dutch and English. Disliking the 
pushing ways of the adventurous British settlers, who went to 
South Africa after the peace of Paris, and bitterly resenting the 
abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834, the more inde- 
pendent of the Boers withdrew in detachments from the original 
settlements in Cape Colony, and sought to find new homes for 
themselves in the wilderness. The first migration was in 1835, 
when some of the Boers established on the north-east coast the 
republic of Natal, but the English followed them, and in 1843 took 
Natal into their own hands. 

12. Two other Boer republic^rose, the Orange River Free 
The Boep State, which, in 1854, was allowed its independence by 
republics. Britain ; and in 1852 in the district called, after 1858, 
the South African Republic or the Transvaal. The settlers in 



-I90I.] THE OVERSEAS DOMINIONS 725 

the latter were so few that they could neither administer the 
country nor keep control over the natives, especially the fierce 
Zulus who dwelt in the lands between their territories and the 
Indian Ocean. From these difficulties so many troubles flowed 
to South Africa, that, in 1877, the Transvaal was annexed, and 
abortive attempts were made to unite all the South African colonies 
in a federation. The native troubles were appeased in 1879, when 
the Zulu king Cetchwayo was overthrown. As soon as this terror 
was removed, the Transvaal revolted, defeated the British at 
Majuba HiU, and in 1881 received virtual independence from the 
Gladstone g-overnment. 

13. ISTot long" after this the discovery of rich gold reefs in a 
district of the Transvaal, called the Band, further complicated the 
South African problem. A restless cosmopolitan popu- 
lation of gold- seekers filled the Rand and its chief mines and 
town, Johannesburg. It was then inevitable that there the struggle 
should be the strongest antagonism between them and of Boer and 
the slow-minded, hard-fighting, old-fashioned Dutch 
farmers. Though hating the foreigners and their ways, the Boers 
shrewdly profited by the flowing tide of wealth set rolling by the 
Outlanders, carefully excluded them from the citizenship, and, con- 
tinuing their old habits of military training, lavishly provided 
themselves with modern weapons and artillery. Their dislike of 
the new- coiners became the greater, since a great extension of 
British influence was brought about after 1889, when a British 
South African Company was established by Cecil Rhodes, an 
English emigrant, who had made a fortune in the diamond fields 
of Kimberley, and in 1890 became prime minister of Cape Colony. 
Through his operations the districts to the north of the Transvaal 
were opened up for settlement under the name of Bhodesia, through 
which the Boers were limited to their existing territories. More- 
over, Rhodes and his party made common cause with the Outlanders 
in the Transvaal, and in 1895 one of the officers of the company, 
Dr. Jameson, made a raid into the Transvaal. He was easily over- 
powered by the Boers. Moreover, his attempt did much harm to the 
Outlander movement, and stirred up race hatred between English 
and Dutch all over South Africa. At the Cape the Dutch party 
drove Rhodes from power, and replaced him by a ministry strongly 
sympathizing with the Boers. The blunders of their enemies 
enabled the Transvaal Boers, headed by their president, Paul 
Kruger, to pose as the champions of Dutch freedom in South 
Africa. 



726 



THE OVERSEAS DOMINIONS 



[1820- 



14. From 1895 to 1899 strong tension prevailed betweeu. the 
rival parties in Africa, and, despite many efforts at negotiations. 
The ppe- Kmger and the Boers refused to accept any terms 
parations which the British government wonld offer. The 
top war. Boers redoubled their military preparations, and in 
October, 1899, the Transvaal and the Orange River Free State 
combined to invade Cape Colony and N"atal. 

15. The Boer war outlasted the reign of Victoria, and was 




Emery Walker se. 



The Boep 
war. 



only concluded under her successor. The Boer states, where every 
man was a rider and marksman, put a large force into 
the field, and at first swept everything before them. 
When an army corps was mobilized in England an^j 
successfully despatched to South Africa, it was split up into four 
divisions, not one of which was strong enough to effect its purpose. 
The fiercest fighting was in ]N'atal, where the Boers besieged thd 
chief force in South Africa at the beginning of the war in Lady- 
smith, and the largest section of the corps sent from England 
strove in vain to relieve the siege. Before the end of 1899, three 



II 



-I90I.J THE OVERSEAS DOMINIONS 727 

at least of the divisions of tlie armj corps had delivered their main 
attack and failed. But the Boers did not know how to utilize their 
successes, and the early months of 1900 saw each side waiting for 
the other. An enormous number of fresh British troops were 
despatched under Lord Roberts, the hero of the Afghan war, with 
Lord Kitchener, the conqueror of the Sudan, as the chief of his 
staff. All through the Empire our reverses excited a wave of 
patriotic feeling, and gave admirable opportunity of demonstrating 
the reality of our reserve forces, and the zeal of the seK-governing 
colonies in supplying solid bodies of fine troops for the defence of 
the Empire. Lord Roberts then marched from Cape Colony north- 
wards to the Free State, defeated the main Boer army, and took 
possession of Bloemfontein, its capital. After his advance, the 
Boer forces round Ladysmith were so far weakened that it became 
a comparatively easy matter to storm their strong positions and 
relieve the hard-pressed garrison. A terrible outbreak of typhoid 
long delayed Roberts at Bloemfontein, but in May he resumed his 
advance, and occupied Johannesburg and Pretoria. 

16. The conquest of the Boer capitals increased rather than 
diminished the difficulties of concluding the war. The long line 
of communications could only be guarded with the 
utmost difficulty, and the Boers, who had failed in establish- 
their more constructive plans of strategy, proved ment of 
consummate masters of war on a small scale. Their ^^i*^*^^ 
energy, skill, and resoiu'cefulness enabled them to 
carry on a brilliant guerilla warfare for two years more. 

Books Recommended for the Further Study of the Years 1820 

TO 1901 

As we get nearer our own days histories become more voluminous and less 
authoritative, so that the difficulty of making a selection is an ever increasing 
one. Full details are given in a short but rather dry form in J. F. Bright's 
History of England, in three volumes, called respectively Constitutional 
Monarchy, 1689-1837, The Groivth of Democracy, 1837-1880, and Imperial 
Reaction, 1880-1901. More elaborate and voluminous are Miss INIartineau's 
History of Thirty Years' Peace; S. Walpole's Histoi-y of England from 1815 ; 
Disraeli's Life of Lord George Bentinclc ; Charles Greville's Memoirs ; Morley's 
Life of Cobden : Morley's Life of Gladstone ; S. Lee's Queen Victoria : and 
Longmans' Political History of England, vol. xi., 1801-1837, by Brodrick and 
Fotheringham, vol. xii., 1837-1901, by Low and Sanders. For non-political 
aspects of history see T. H. Ward's Reign of Queen Victoria, Social England, 
vol. vi., and Hovell's Chartist Movement, there are many good short biogra- 
phies of the leading personalities of the period. For Indian history, see 
Sir W. W. Hunter's Indian Empire, and R. Muir's Making of British India, 
1756-1858. For the Dominions overseas H. E. Egerton's Short History of British 
Colonial Policy and Lucas' Historical Geographies of the British Colonies. 



BOOK IX. 
THE HOUSE OF WINDSOR. 

CHAPTER I. 
EDWARD VII. (1901-1910). 

Chief Dates : 

1901. Accession of Edward vii. 

1902. End of the Boer war ; Balfour's Education Act. 

1903. Chamberlain resigned and started Tariff Reform movement. 

1904. War between Russia and Japan ; Convention between England and 

France. 
1906. Conservative defeat at general election ; Campbell-Bannerman 
ministry. 

1908. Asquith prime minister. 

1909. Budget rejected by House of Lords. 

1910. Federation of South Africa ; Liberal victory at general election ; 

death of Edward viil 

1. Edward vii. was the first king of England who directly suc- 
ceeded as son of a queen regnant. It seems as natural for a son 
to succeed his mother as his father, and his accession 
Saxony and ^^^ ^^^ \'i2A to any break of continuity or chang'e of 
the Cobupg- policy. Yet with him old-fashioned historians would 

have said that a new dynasty began on the British 
succession, -^ *'. ^ 

throne. The house of Brunswick, which had furnished 

us king's for nearly two hundred years, would have been regarded 
as ending in the direct line at the break in the uninterrupted 
male succession. Just as the old house was called indifferently 
Brunswick, Hanover, or Guelph, so the new house could be called 
Saxony, Coburg-Gotha, or "Wettin. Brunswick or Saxony repre- 
sented the general territorial designation of either house ; Hanover 
or Coburg-'Gotha the particular local branch represented in Britain ; 
Guelph or Wettin the traditional family name. By strict law 
Edward vii. would have become Duke of Coburg and Gotha, 
728 



•I902.] EDWARD VII. 



7.29 



even before his own succession to the throne. Accordingly, when 
prince of Wales, Edward waived his German rights in favour of 
his younger brothers and their children. The new King, who had 
been called Albert Edward when prince of Wales, took the style 
of Edward til He added to his old titles that of " King of the 
British Dominions beyond the seas." It was a recognition that the 
■ Overseas Dominions had outgrown the status of Colonies, as much 
as the United States. 

2. Edward vii. was already in his sixtieth year, and had for 
nearly forty years represented his mother on nearly all the cere- 
monial sides of her office. He had been an indefati- 
gable traveller, knew every part of the Empire, and ES^^^^l^r °^ 
Z A • ^ 1 J • / ^ i? n XI • Edward VII. 
nad acquired a shrewd judgment 01 men and thmgs. 

He had, however, abstained from taking any part in politics, and 
was thought to have had little share in the counsels of his mother. 
He was looked upon as an easy-going and pleasure-loving man of 
the world, with tact, intelligence, oj)en-mindedness, discretion, and 
sti'ong practical interests. He took his position as constitutional 
king very seriously, and made his influence strongly felt, notably' 
on foreign affairs. He was even more careful than liis mother in 
keeping to himself his personal opinions on politics. His wide 
sympathies, tolerance, and good nature made it easy for him to act 
with men of different parties, notions, and social position. He 
worked hard until the end of his life, winniug the respect and 
esteem of his subjects, and leaving behind him the reputation of 
a monarch who played a difficult part with discretion and success. 

3. At the new king's accession the war with the Boers was 
still dragging on. Lord Roberts had left South Africa, and Lord 
Kitchener was in supreme command. Fresh trooiDS 

were still poured in, and a series of block-houses was g^g^, ^^^ 
erected to control the chief centres of resistance. 
Nevertheless the Boers raised a revolt in Cape Colony, and de- 
feated and captured Lord Methuen after a fierce fight. Gradually, 
however. Kitchener's measures of repression began to have their 
results. Every week large numbers of fighting Boers were slain 
or captured, and very slowly their obstinate resistance wore itself 
out. At last the Boers saw that further resistance was useless, 
and made their submission in May, 1902. Thus the Boer republics 
became subject to the British cro^vn, as the Transvaal and Orange 
E-iver Colonies. 

4. War had reduced to a low ebb the prosperity of South Africa, 
and after the peace trade long remained depressed. There were 



730 EDWARD VII. [1902- 

difficulties in the way of oMaining enougli native labour on the Rand. 
To remedy the lack of black workmen in the mines, Chinese coolies 

were imported in large numbers. The Chinamen were 
1^^!'^ bound by contract to work under strict conditions for 

settlement a period of years, and the terms of their service were 
and denounced as amounting to slavery. After the general 

election of 1906, the Chinese were sent back to their 
own land, and gradually industry in the Transvaal was restored to 
its former channels. Political difficulties immensely complicated the 
situation. The British and Dutch elements, so recently engaged 
in mortal combat, were now forced to live side by side, though 
racial antagonism still remained strong. Fortunately, both sides 
had fought so well that >they kept both their own self-respect and 
respect for their antagonists. Bit by bit the situation improved. 
At last, in 1906, the Liberal government granted self-government 
to the Transvaal, and the majority of the elected assembly proving 
favourable to the Boers, Louis Botha, their general-in-chief during 
the war, became prime minister. A little later responsible govern- 
ment was extended to the Orange River Colony, where the Boers 
were in an enormous majority. Some friction inevitably arose, 
but the Boer leaders showed frankness and loyalty in recognising 
their new position as subjects of the British crown. Yery soon 
the success of the experiment led to a renewal of the negotiations 
for the joining together of the various South African colonies 
after the fashion of the federation of Canada and Australia. More 
than thirty years before, in 1877, the breakdown of the earlier 
e:ffiorts at union began the long troubles which came to a head in 
the war. The revived federal movement was now easily carried to 
a conclasion, and accepted even in !Natal, where the British party 
was stronger than anywhere else. In 1909, a South Africa Act 
was passed through the British parliament by which Cape Colony, 
Natal, the Transvaal, and the Orange River were to be united from 
the year 1910. "When the federal government was formed, Botha 
became prime minister of united South Africa. 

5. For the first years of the new reign the Unionist govern- 
ment, set up in 1895, remained in power. In July, 1902, Lord 

Salisbury, the prime minister, whose health was 

minis^v°"^ rapidly declining, resigned office, and died soon after- 

and the wards. Thereupon his nephew. A, J. Balfour, stepped 

Education ^j^^q jjjg place. In 1902 Balfour passed an Education 
Act of 1902 • . r ■ 

Act, the central principle of which was to make the 

county councils of England and Wales the local authority for 



-1914] EDWARD VII. 731 

every aspect of education. The school boards, which since 1870 
had been entrusted with the management of elementary education, 
were aboHshed, and their functions transferred to an education 
committee, appointed by the county council. Next in importance 
to this was the compelling of the local authority to maintain from 
its funds not only the public elementary schools, set up by the 
school boards, but all other elementary schools as weU, including 
the so-called "voluntary schools," the great majority of which 
belonged to the Church»of England and to the Roman Catholics. 
This led to an outcry against the bill, which was denounced as 
endowing sectarian education at the expense of the state. There 
can be no doubt that the act offered to managers of such schools 
freedom from financial anxieties, but it was at the expense of their 
surrendering the ultimate direction of the schools to a popularly 
elected body. It is not improbable that the act will in the long 
run be best remembered for the fact that it gave the local 
authority absolute control over the secular instruction in every 
elementary school. Even more important was the duty first im- 
posed on the local bodies of being responsible for all education 
within its district. It thus made a great step forward towards the 
establishment of a uniform national system of education. Other 
changes increased about the same time the control of the central 
state over all aspects of education. For the moment, however, the 
broader issues were lost sight of. There were many persons found, 
both among friends and foes of voluntary schools, who believed 
that these schools had received a great advantage by the act. 
Some of the nonconformist leaders refused to pay the education 
rate, because they objected to their money being employed to endow 
sectarian teaching. They were known as " passive resisters." 
Meanwhile the operation of the act began steadily to reduce the 
number of voluntary schools. 

6. In 1903 a costly but necessary step was taken in the Irish 
Land Act, which empowered the state to lend money to Irish 
tenants who wished to buy their farms. In 1904 a ipjshLand 
Licensing Act was passed, which provided new facili- and Lieens- 
ties for reducing the number of public-houses, but mg Acts, 
also allowed compensation to be given to those interested in lapsed 
licenses out of a fund raised from the license-holders themselves. 
This measure was fiercely denounced, because it was said that the 
government thus recognised the hitherto precarious yearly license 
as a permanent piece of property. 

7. In foreio-n affairs Lord Lansdowne, who succeeded Salisbm-y 



732 EDWARD VII. [1901- 

as foreign secretary in 1900, strove to remedy tlie isolation from 
all foreign alliances in wliick Britain found herself at the time 
The isolation of Yictoria's death. The traditional friendship with 
of England. Germany had weakened under the stress of grow- 
ing* commercial, naval, and colonial rivalry, while the ancient 
dread of Russia remained and threatened to compromise our rela- 
tions with Russia's ally, the French Repuhlic, with which we had 
many outstanding points of dispute. The general sympathy 
shown on the continent for the Boers increased the loneliness of 
this country. Besides the coolness of Europe, there were troubles 
in the Far East and in the Ear West. 

8. The blackness of the situation was not, however, unrelieved. 
In the worst of the South African difficulties, no power gave the 
_, Boers more than sympathy, and the military resources 

cordiale developed to vindicate our supremacy showed that 

yf ^th Britain was still no negligible factor in politics. It was 

now the work of our statesmen to win back friendship 
with the chief powers, while avoiding compKcations Kkely to fetter 
our future action. The first step in that direction was a treaty of 
alliance made in 1902 with Japan. In the same year Britain 
joined with Germany to force the South American Bepublic of 
Venezuela to respect the property and rights of subjects of the 
two states. More important was the conclusion of a convention 
with France in 1903, by which many ancient disputes were settled. 
France recognized the British occupation of Egypt ; the trouble 
about the respective rights of British and French fishermen o:ff the 
Newfoundland coast, which went back to the Treaty of Utrecht, 
was brought to an end ; some common policy was arranged for 
Morocco, and petty boundary disputes in remote parts of the world 
were adjusted. Gradually what was called an entente cordiale was 
established. Germany, however, resented the Anglo-French 
alliance, and made it a reason for increasing the German navy, 
for renewing the old friendship with Russia, and in particular 
for complaining that the Anglo-French policy in Morocco was 
dangerous to her interests. Some indiscretions on the part of the 
French foreign minister gave colour to German irritation. For 
a time war between France and Germany seemed not impossible. 
But France was at last forced to gratify the Germans by sacrificing 
her foreign minister, and under his more prudent successor the 
storm died down. The result was, however, to make Germany 
more suspicious of England than ever. 

9. Early in 1904 war broke out in the Far East between Russia 



I 



-I907-] EDWARD VII. 



733 



and Japan. From the beginning" the issue of the struggle was not 
left in doubt. Incompetence, corruption, and unrest at home para- 
lyzed the huge resources of Russia. The Japanese The Russo- 
showed wonderful efficiency, energy, and self-restraint. Japanese 
After a long siege they captured Port Arthur, de- Nortrsta^'^ 
feated the Russians in a series of pitched battles in incident. 
Manchuria, and annexed Corea. At last the Russians sent their 
Baltic fleet to dispute with the up-to-date Japanese navy the 
command of the Northern Pacific. The Russian ships were ill- 
found, and went out conscious of coming disaster. As they sailed 
by the fishing-grounds of the North Sea, they mistook a harmless 
fleet of English trawlers for Japanese torpedo craft, fired upon 
them, and slew some helpless Hull fisherfolk. Great indignation 
was excited by this outrage, and the subsequent movements of the 
Russians were closely watched by a strong British fleet, deter- 
mined to prevent the repetition of such conduct. On reaching the 
seat of war, the Russian ships were destroyed by the Japanese in 
the battle of Tsushima, the fiercest sea-fight ever fought under 
modern conditions. Before long the Russians gladly accepted the 
mediation of the United States, which resulted in October, 1905, 
in the Treaty of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, by which they 
yielded to Japan all her chief demands. The spectacle of the 
defeat of one of the greatest of European powers by yellow men, 
only recently brought under the influence of Western civilization, 
demonstrated that Russia was incapable of aggression, and that a 
strong' new power had arisen in the Far East with which European 
peoples established in the Pacific lands would have to reckon. 
After the treaty, Russia was further distracted by internal 
troubles and threatened revolution. The North Sea incident had 
necessarily turned British sympathy towards Japan ; but it was 
soon made clear that the slaughter of the fishermen was due not to 
design but to blunder and panic, and ultimately compensation was 
accepted, and the outrage condoned. By 1907 a good understanding 
between Britain and Russia was arrived at. 

10. In improving the relations of Britain with foreign powers 
an important part was played by the personal action of the king. 
He was indefatigable in visiting foreign countries, and ^ 

in welcoming the return visits of kings, presidents, the Peace 
and ministers to our shores. A large number of Maker, 
foreign princes were closely akin to the king or the queen, and 
new marriages of the royal family widened the circle of monarchs 
related to our reigning house. The king had some share in 



734 EDWARD VI I. I1901- 

bringing about the entente witb France, and was equally active in 
promoting good relations with, his wife's nephew, the emperor of 
Russia. His personal intercourse with his nephew the German 
emperor helped to lessen the strain of the relations between 
the United Kingdom and Grermany. The change of government 
in 1905 did little to alter our foreign policy. The Liberal foreign 
secretary, Sir Edward G-rey, continued the lines already laid 
down. If the entente with France was negotiated by the Con- 
servatives, the better understanding with Russia and Germany was 
to be set down to the credit of the Liberals. The general result 
won for king Edward the title of the Peace Maker. 

11. A new direction was given to politics by Joseph Chamber- 
lain, the colonial secretary, who now advocated the abandonment 
Chamberlain ^^ ^^^ system of free trade which since the days of 
and tariff Peel and Gladstone, had generally been regarded as 

the essential condition of our prosperity. Various 
reasons led him to this conclusion. Despite the example of Britain, 
our chief commercial rivals had not adopted free trade, and had 
iievertheless thriven exceedingly. Even our colonies had become 
strongly protectionist, and were as anxious as foreigners to keep 
our manufactures out of their markets. Chamberlain dreamt of a 
closer union between Britain and the dominions. Thinking that the 
easiest way of preparing for this was to offer the colonies a pre- 
ference in their commerce with us, he saw that this could only be 
done if duties were imposed on a large number of articles. More- 
over, he believed that free trade had damaged our home industries 
and our agriculture by admitting to our markets the products of 
countries which jealously kept out our goods by high tariffs. 
Chamberlain soon gathered round him a certain number of 
followers, but he was fiercely opposed by the Liberals and found 
little active support in the cabinet. Ritchie, the free trade 
©hanceller of the exchequer, insisted on taking off the small duty 
on corn, imposed for revenue purposes during the Boer war. 
Feeling himself hampered by office from preaching his new gospel, 
Chamberlain resigned in September, 1903. His ideas, however, 
had so far taken root in the cabinet that the keener free traders, 
including Ritchie and the duke of Devonshire, also gave up their 
places soon afterwards. In the reconstitution of the ministry then 
effected, his son Austen Chamberlain, who shared his views, 
became chancellor of the exchequer, and, after much hesitation, 
BaKour began to veer towards tariff reform, 

12. The ministry was much weakened by these changes. 



"i9o6.] EDWARD VII. prj^ 

Efforts to reorganize the army elicited little entliiisiasm or con- 
fidence. There was a fierce agitation against the Education and 
Licensing Acts, and a hot outcry against what pall of the 
was called " Chinese slavery " in South Africa. The Balfour 
conservative instincts of the average British elector "Ministry, 
made him loath to disturb the free trade system which he was 
accustomed to. Political economists declared that Chamberlain's 
views were against the doctrines of their science. The poor man 
feared that import duties would raise the cost of living. G-reat 
industries, like the Lancashire cotton trade, believed that tariff 
reform would diminish their enormous export trade, and there was 
a widespread feeling that protection might encourage the growth of 
trusts, rings, and corrupt vestecZ interests. For aU these reasons 
the ministry lost ground. The bye-elections showed that it had 
largely lost popular confidence, and yet it made the fatal mistake 
of clinging to office and postponing the dissolution of parliament. 
At last the situation became so difficult that in December, 1905, 
the Balfour cabinet resigned. 

13. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman then became prime 
minister of a Liberal administration, in which Sir Edward Grey 
was foreign secretary, R. B. Haldane minister of 
war, John Morley (soon made a viscount) Indian bell-Ban- 
secretary, and H. H. Asquith chancellor of the nerman 
exchequer. Among the .newer men were the eloquent ^nd^the" 
Welshman, David Lloyd George, and John Burns, elections 
the workmen's representative. Parliament was dis- o'^^O^. 
solved, and the general election of January and February, 1906, 
resulted in an overwhelming victory for the new government^ 
whose immediate supporters mustered twice as strong as all sections 
of Unionists. Besides nearly 400 Liberal members, there was the 
usual solid Irish Nationalist vote of over 80, and a new feature of 
the election was the return of about 40 members of an Independent; 
Labour Party, pledged to strong labour measures, and a poUcy of 
social reform veering in the direction of socialism. When 
Nationalists and Labour men supported the government, it could 
outvote by more than 350 the 150 dispirited Conservatives. Never 
had there been such a majority before, and never had the individual 
majorities of a large number of the victorious party been so over- 
whelmingly great. In Scotland the Liberal majority was greatly 
increased ; Wales elected no Conservatives at all ; the industrial 
districts of the north declared strongly for free trade, and Lanca- 
shire, hitherto preponderatingly Conservative, returned a Liberal 



736 EDWARD VII. [1902- 

majority almost rivalling those of Durliam and Yorkshire. London 
was more evenly divided, but the Conservatives greatly lost ground. 
Even in the home counties and small boroughs of the south a 
fair number of Liberals was returned. Only in Birmingham and 
its district did the cause of tariff reform win a decided victory. 
This was a remarkable personal triumph for Chamberlain. But 
before long ill-health gradually compelled him to give up all but a 
nominal part in public life. His removal from active politics 
deprived Britain of the statesman whose conduct, though very 
variously judged, was always dominated by large ideals and com- 
prehensive schemes appealing to the imagination of the electorate. 
Yet, though the issues before the electors were exceptionally com- 
plicated, it is clear that Chamberlain's fiscal policy was not attrac- 
tive to the majority of voters, and even clearer that the late 
ministry was no longer trusted. It was the first election since 
1S86 in which Home Rule for Ireland, though still part of the 
Liberal programme, was allowed to sink into the background. 
Another feature of the struggle was the prominence of the cry for 
social reform. 

14. The Liberals remained in power for the rest of Edward vii.'s 
reign. Campbell-Bannerman, though without any claim to a high 
Tjjg rank among statesmen, showed sln-ewdness, tact, and 
Asquith good humour in keeping together his huge, but some-= 
mmistpy. what discordant majority. It was a real loss to his 
party when ill-health compelled his resignation in 1908, and soon 
after led to his death. Asquith was chosen as his successor, and 
lovers of old ways complained that the king, then in the south of 
Prance, sent for the new premier to Biarritz, instead of returning 
to England to treat with his servants in his own country. In the 
reconstitution of offices necessitated by the change of prime 
minister, Lloyd George became chancellor of the exchequer, and 
cabinet office was given to the brilliant son of Lord Randolph 
Churchill, Winston Churchill, who had but recently left the 
Conservative for the Liberal party. 

15. The new government set to work to remedy what it 
regarded as the errors of its predecessors. Prominent among these 

was the Education Act of 1902. Yarious elaborate 

1116 

Liberal schemes of educational reorganization were brought 

education forward in the years 1906 and 1908. The first pro- 
policy. 

posed that no elementary school should be recognized 

unless it was provided by the local education authority, and evoked 

as violent protests from the church party as Balfour's act had 



-i9o8-] £DWARD VII. 'jyj 

excited among* the nonconformists. The bill passed through the 
Commons, but was so much altered in the House of Lords that the 
Commons rejected all these amendments, and the g-overnment 
abandoned it. Early in 1907 a new bill on different lines was 
proposed, but withdrawn in favour of a third scheme, introduced in 
the autumn session, which sought to disarm opposition by allowing 
privately managed schools to "contract out" of its provisions. 
This yielded too much to satisfy the extreme supporters of the 
government, and not enough to please its opponents. Despairing 
of any agreement being arrived at, the government dropped this 
plan also. Not even the grievances of the " passive resisters " were 
remedied by law, but efforts were made to administer the act of 
1902 in such a spirit that the friends of the government should see 
less reason to object to it. 

16. A second chief concern of the government was to amend 
the licensing act of 1904. Accordingly, in 1908 a new Licensing 
Bill was brought into the House of Commons which »,,,.. 
provided for the compulsory reduction of licenses, and programme 
afcmed the principle that, after a time limit, devised and the 
to protect vested interests, a locality might, at its ^^ ^' 
option, prohibit the sale of intoxicants. A great outcry against 
the measure arose on the ground that it dealt unfairly with those 
engaged in the drink traffic, and though it passed the Commons, 
the House of Lords threw it out. This was only one of several 
government measures which the Lords either rejected outright, 
or amended so freely that the ministry preferred to abandon them 
altogether to accepting them in their altered form ; among the 
former was a bill to prevent plural voting, while among the latter 
was a bill to promote small holdings in Scotland. The ministers 
succeeded, however, in passing many important acts, including 
measures to compensate workmen for injuries received as a result 
of their employment, and to allow old age pensions to x)ersons over 
seventy not in receipt of parish relief. The hours for work in coal- 
mines were fixed by law not to exceed eight hours ; an act was 
passed for the protection of children, called the Children's Act, 
and two new universities were set up in Ireland, one of which, 
called the National University, was likely to be under the control 
of the Roman Catholics, who had long disKked the Protestant or 
non-sectarian character of Irish university education. An attempt 
to give Ireland an instalment of Home Rule by what was called 
the Devolution Bill, and a proposal to disestablish the Welsh church. 
were not persevered in by the government. Already, in 1907, 

2 c; 



73^ EDWARD VII.. [1909- 

a larg-e scheme of army re- organization was carried by E.. B. 
Haldane, and, later, large siuns were spent in adding to tlie navy 
the novel and expensive type of battleship called the Dreadnoughts. 

17. In 1909 the great measure was the budget of Lloyd George. 
This extended the system of graduating the income tax, so that 

wealthy persons paid at a higher rate than those of 
and the moderate means ; increased the taxes on spirits and 

House of the amounts paid for licenses by publicans and sellers 

of strong drink ; taxed for the first time the " un- 
earned increment " which, it was said, accrued to owners of lands 
near growing towns without any effort on their own part ; and 
claimed a share for the state out of the royalties paid for the right 
of extracting minerals from land. The budget was denounced as 
revolutionary and confiscatory, and aU through the summer was 
fiercely contested in the Commons. It was not till late in the year 
that it came to the House of Lords, which declined to pass the bill 
until the country had been definitely asked whether it approved of 
it or not. Its necessary result was to force the government to have 
recourse to an immediate dissolution of parliament. The electors 
had to decide between the Lords and the Liberals. 

18. Early in 1910 the second general election of Edward vii.'s 
reign was held. The ministers asked the electors to declare in 
The elections favour of the budget, and declared that they would 
of 1910. jiot hold ofBLce unless means were taken to destroy the 
Lords' control over finance, and to end their veto over legislation, 
which had in the last parliament wrecked so many of the govern- 
ment measures. The Opposition defended the action of the Lords, 
but argued that the main issue before the country was the choice 
between free trade and tariff reform. The elections showed either 
that the electors did not generally regard the House of Lords as 
strong enough to be dangerous, or that tariff reform had made 
considerable progress. The Liberals lost many seats, especially in 
the south and midlands, but the industrial north was still almost 
solid for free trade, and against the Lords. Consequently the 
turnover of votes was not sufficient to give the Conservatives a 
majority. Ministers could retain office as long as they kept the 
support of the Irish and Labour parties, with whose help they had 
a majority of about 130. It was therefore with weakened forces 
that they met the new assembly. 

19. Two questions were prominent above all others. The 
government wished to send up its rejected budget to the Lords, 



-19I0-] EDWARD VII. 739 

and to prevent the Upper House from thwarting its policy in 
the future. There was some difficulty, however, in deciding 
the order in which these two matters should be pushed 
forward, and time was consumed in drawing up resolutions 
resolutions declaring that in the future the Lords' and the 
power over finance was to be abolished, and their right ^*"^'^ death, 
of veto so limited that any measure desired by the Commons might 
become law, despite the peers, before the expiration of the parlia- 
ment in which it was first passed by the Commons. Such resolu- 
tions involved the whole constitutional problem of the power and 
constitution of the second chamber, and demanded much time and 
thought before they could be turned into laws. The. ministers 
were reproached with delaying the budget because they were afraid 
that the Irish party, which had no love of the increased duties on 
spirits, would vote against it. Within a few weeks of the first 
meeting of the new parliament there was talk of dissolution. 
When, however, the budget of 1909 was at last reintroduced, it 
was easily carried through the Commons, and accepted by the 
Lords. The question of the second chamber was, however, so 
thorny, and the opposition of the Lords to the government 
proposals likely to be so emphatic, that a dissolution still seemed 
likely to be inevitable before the problem was settled. Party 
controversy remained fierce, when the king, whose health had 
latterly been giving way, died somewhat suddenly on May 6, 1910, 
at a moment when his mediating influence was specially required. 
His son, George prince of Wales, became George v., and an 
informal truce of parties ushered in the new reign. 



CHAPTER II 

GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR 
(1910-1918) 

Chief Dates : 

1910. Accession of George v. ; Second General Election of 1910. 

1911. The Parliament Act. National Insurance Act. 

1912. The Balkan League. 

1914. Home Kule and Welsh Disestablishment Bills become law. Out- 

break of war with Germany. Battles of the Mame, Aisne, and 
Ypres. 

1915. Second Battle of Ypres. The Dardanelles Expedition. Battle of 

the Dunajec. The Asquith National Ministry. 

1916. Capitulation of Kut-el-Amara. Battle ofE Jutland. The Dublin 

Rebellion. The Lloyd George Coalition Ministry. 

1917. Capture of Bagdad. Battle of Caporetto. America at war with 

Germany. 

1918. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Failure of German offensive in France. 

Second Battle of the Mame. Conquest of Syria, Mesopotamia, 
and Serbia. Armistice signed. Reform and Education Acts. 
General Election. 

1, GrEORGE Y. was forty-five years old wlieii he became king*. A 
second son, he was an active naval officer until his brother's death 

in 1892 put him in the direct line of succession. He 
andU^ * ^^® known as a good sailor, a great traveller, and an 
House of excellent speaker. He threw himseK conscientiously 

into the discharge of the delicate duties of his position, 
and showed courage in speaking his mind. In 1893 he married his 
second cousin. Princess Mary of Teck, a great-granddaughter of 
George iii. Though daughter of a German father, she was born 
and brought up in England. Thus, for the first time since the 
Tudors, both king and queen were thoroughly British in sympathy 
and education. This was emphasised after the outbreak of the 
German war, when king George repudiated all foreign titles, and 
desired that his dynasty should be known as the House of Windsor. 
2. The new king appreciated the importance of the crown as a 
link between the various portions of the Empire, which were tending 
740 



19".] GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR 74I 

to drift in different directions as they severally worked out their 
own destinies. His uncle, the duke of Connaught, who had 
already been sent to Sjuth Africa to open the first 
Union Parliameujt, was appointed Governor- General Jhe^Do-°^"' 
of the Dominion of Canada. In the winter of 1911- minions, 
1912 the king and queen went to India, being the " ' * 

first British reigning sovereigns to visit the greatest of their 
dominions. They held a magnificent Durbar at Delhi, at which 
the king announced the transference of the seat of government of 
India from Calcutta to Delhi, the old capital of the Mogul Empire. 
Many schemes for the improvement of the government and the 
development of the resources of India were suggested, and in 1917 
a considerable advance in the direction of Indian self-government 
was promised. The loyalty of India during four years of war, 
and the large share taken by Indian troops in the campaigns, 
gave reasons for making such changes as early as practicable. 
Meanwhile the seK- governing colonies were all developing their 
own resources. Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa 
set an example to the mother country by schemes for organising 
national defence. The problems of the relations of the Dominions 
to the Empire, though much discussed, were never seriously faced. 

3. Between 1910-1914 Parliament was hotly engaged in the old 
party warfare, though it found some leisure to deal with problems 
more deeply affecting the heart of society. The great „, „ , 
fact for the politicians was the impending conflict be- Election 
tween Lords and Commons. To avoid this, an attempt ° 

was made to bring about an understanding between the two houses 
by a conference of party leaders of both sides. On the failure of the 
effort, the government appealed to the country, seeking a clear 
mandate from the electors to destroy the veto of the House of 
Lords. The parliament, elected in January, 1910, was dissolved in 
November, and another general election was held in December ; but 
the balance of parties in the new house was the same as in the old 
one. The number of Liberal and Unionist members was exactly 
equal, so that the ministry, as in the earlier parliament, could main- 
tain its majority only when it could secure Irish Nationalist and 
Labour support. It was accordingly with weakened authority 
that it began in 1911 to put its proposals into practice. 

4. A Parliament Bill was laid before the Commons in February, 
1911. The Lords' absolute power to stop all legislation was to be 
changed into a suspensory veto. The Lords were neither to 
reject nor amend a money bill ; any other bill, if passed by the 



742 GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR [19"- 

Commons in three consecutive sessions, was to become law, irre- 
spective of the action of the Lords ; the duration of a Parliament 

was to be cut down from seven years to five, so that 
Act ^In ®^^^ measures passed by a young Hpuse of Commons 

could be pushed throug-h, over the heads of the Lords, 
without an appeal to the people. To meet complaints that no pro- 
posals were made as to the reconstitution of the upper chamber, 
the Prime Minister pledged the government to bring forward a 
scheme for this within the lifetime of parliament. Insisting, 
however, that the Parliament Bill must be got through as a first 
step, he carried it in the Commons, The Lords' attempts to 
amend the bill were firmly resisted, and as the Lords dared not 
persist, it became law by August. A measure was also carried 
to pay each member of the House of Commons £400 a year for 
his services. Other government measures, including the budget, 
had to be postponed to an autumn session. 

5. In this autumn session Lloyd Greorge finally passed his 
National Insurance scheme. This plan secured that all workers 
N ti n 1 with an income below a certain level should be provided 
Insurance with an allowance, in the event of their sickness or 

*^ ' * unemployment, out of funds to which the insured 
person, his employer, and the State alike contributed. This was 
the first of a series of measures designed to make life more toler- 
able to the mass of the population, and to mitigate the harshness 
of the industrial struggle for existence. Unrest, culminating in 
a series of strikes, shewed that there was widespread dissatisfac- 
tion with existing conditions. The most serious of the labour 
troubles was a great strike of colliers in the spring of 1912. 

6. In 1912 also Parliament sat most of the year. The govern- 
ment proposed to set up Home Rule for Ireland, to disestablish 

and disendow the Welsh Church, and to widen the 
We?sh^?-' ^l^ctoral franchise. Its Irish scheme took a dif- 
establish- f erent shape from the provisions of the Home Rule bills 
Parliamen- of 1886 and 1893. Ireland was to have a parliament 
form^f912 ^^ ^^^ chambers, a House of Commons, and a small 

nominated senate : but the Irish parliament was only 
gradually to take over its full powers, and was not to make laws 
concerning the crown, the army and navy, or foreign policy. There 
was also to be an Irish executive, responsible to the local parlia- 
ment. Forty -two Irish members were still to sit at Westminster, 
with powers equal to those of G-reat Britain's representatives. 

The bill produced acrimonious debates, and the Irish Unionist 



-I9I4-] GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR 743 

members, led by Sir Edward Carson, openly threatened resistance 
in the event of it becoming- law. The measure was, however, 
slowly pushed through the Commons, only to be rejected by the 
Lords. The Welsh Church Bill, also passed by the Commons, had 
the same fate. The New Reforiin Bill proposed that no man should 
have more than one vote, that residence or occupation should be 
the sole qualification of a voter and that the cumbrous registration 
law should be simplified. There was, however, no proposal to 
rearrange the constituencies or to give votes to women, despite 
strong agitation, both inside and outside parliament, in favour of 
the latter step. An amendment for giving women votes was 
ruled inadmissible by the Speaker. Thereupon Asquith withdrew 
the whole bill. He promised to give facilities next year for the 
discussion of a measure for women's suffrage. 

7. Unfruitful debates prolonged the 1912 session till February 
1913, and, after a few days' interval, the new session began. The 
Home Rule and the Welsh Church bills were again 

sent up by the Commons and again rejected by the If ^gfo^^^" 
Lords. The same fate overtook a bill abolishing 
plural voting, while leaving untouched the other anomalies of the 
electoral system. A Women's Suffrage bill, brought forward by 
private members, failed to pass the Commons, the Prime Minister 
being in the forefront of the opposition to it. 

8. The government had not improved its position either in 
parKament or in the country. Even its more broadly conceived 
measures, such as the Insurance Act, were difficult to yig^-gj, ^^^ 
carry out, and required amending and supplementing* Home Rule, 
before they worked well. The Prime Minister was 
vigorously attacked by the friends of Women's Suffrage, who 
thought that he had interpreted his pledge in too lawyerlike a 
fashion. Adverse bye-elections slowly undermined the Liberal 
majority, and increased the reluctance of the ministers to appeal 
to the country. The worst trouble before them seemed to be the 
disturbed state of Ireland, brought about by the fact that, under 
the Parliament Act, the Home Rule Bill would automatically 
become law by the end of the session. Headed by Carson, the 
Ulster Protestant party took a solemn covenant to resist Home 
Rule by force. It drilled and armed a large force of Ulster 
Volunteers to defend Protestant Ulster. The Nationalists natu- 
rally followed the example, and levied a host of National Volunteers 
to enforce Home Rule. Ireland was divided into two armed 
camps, each professing to prepare to fight the other. The Irish 



744 GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR [1911- 

government, barely controlled by tlie weak Irish Secretary, proved 
incompetent either to comprehend or to restrain the fierce passions 
which its proposals had excited. 

9. In this tense atmosphere the session of 1914 opened. The 
government once more brought forward its old measures, but, as a 

concession to Ulster, it allowed any county, or county 
Home Rule borough, to exclude itself by popular vote from the 
Ulster Home Rule Act for six years. Carson offered to 

191^1^^^ consider permanent exclusion, but ministers refused 

to move any farther. Humours spread of a projected 
concentration of troops to enforce Home Rule on Ulster. There- 
upon some highly placed army officers, stationed in Ireland, 
sent in their resignation. The result was a ministerial crisis, 
involving the resignation of the minister of war and of Sir John 
French, chief of the staff. The trouble was patched up only 
by the Prime Minister himself undertaking the charg-e of the 
War Office. Nevertheless the Home Rule Bill was still pressed 
through the House, Asquith maintaining that concession to Ulster 
must take the shape of a subsequent amending act. But his 
Th Ame d- ■^'^^'^^i'^9 ^^^^ '^^'^ only produced because the Lords 
ing Bill, refused to discuss the Home Rule Bill until this was 

done. It proved to be the old offer of six years' ex- 
clusion CO any counties voting for such a course. The Lords then 
amended the Home Rule Bill before them by excluding all Ulster 
from its operation. The danger of war with G-ermany now led 
the king to summon a conference of all parties to Buckingham 
Palace, but nothing resulted from this. After war broke out, the 
Government dropped the Amending Bill, and thus forced the 
Lords to reject outright the Home Rule Bill. When the Welsh 
Church Bill was again sent up to the Lords, it was once more 
thrown out. As union against the German peril made it unde- 
sirable that these two fiercely opposed measures should become law 
at the end of the session under the Parliament Act, a Suspensory 
Act postponed their operation until after the war. 

10. The greatest war in history was the result of the claim 
of Germany to dominate the world and the inevitable resistance 
Q . . - which such a pretension excited. Yisions of an Empire, 
the Great transcending the power of a Louis xiv. or a Napoleon, 

^^' had long dazzled the eyes of William 11., the German 

Emperor, and the German military class. The merchants and 
manufacturers, intoxicated by their increasing success in com- 
merce and industry, shared in the illusion of their rulers. For 



-I9I3-] GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WA'R 745 

more than forty years Germany's claims had divided Eiu-ope 
into hostile camps. Each continental nation was armed to the 
teeth ; every accidental dispute became dang-erous because it might 
provoke an internecine conflict. On the one side stood the Triple 
Alliance of the Central Powers, Germany, Austria and Italy, which 
latter state was, however, becoming- conscious that she was dragged 
in the wake of her mig-hty allies without any regard to her own 
special interests. Opposed to the Triple Alliance stood the Dual 
Alliance of Russia and France. 

Alone of the great European powers, Britain did her best to keep 
free from the trammels of the rival leagues. Even after necessity 
had forced her to shew strong sympathy for the Dual Alliance, she 
hoped still to live on friendly terms with Germany, and made no 
attempt to rival the armaments of the continental powers. Her 
politicians turned a deaf ear to the warnings of the veteran Lord 
Roberts that only general national service could prepare her for a 
great war. Haldane, who, as war minister, had done more than 
any other man for army reform, declared that enough had been 
accomi)lished to meet any eventuality. Thus Britain blinded her- 
self to the increasing arrogance of German claims. If war was 
avoided for so long, it was mainly because Germany was well 
content with the success of her policy of " peaceful penetration," 
supplemented upon occasion by tlireats, which generally resulted 
in her obtaining what she wanted. 

11. Between 1911 and 1913 three new troubles shewed that the 

armed peace was not likely to last much longer. The first of 

these was in Morocco, where there was war between continental 

the French and the disorderly government of that troubles, 

" 19I1-19I3 

kingdom. In 1911 the German Emperor sent the 

gunboat Panther to the port of Agadir, thus revealing his desire 

to interfere between France and Morocco. The Anglo-French 

agreement had laid down that Morocco was within tne French 

sphere of influence ; Britain now declared that she was prepared 

to supj)ort France against German attack. The ^j^^ 

Kaiser withdrew the Panther, and accepted a tve««ty "Panther" 

'- 55 1^ A 0*51 d i r* 

which left France undisturbed in Morocco. It was 

a great triumph for the entente cordiale, but it left bad blood 

behind it. 

12. A second trouble was even more disturbing to Germany, be- 
cause it foreshadowed the breakdown of the Triple Alliance by the 
secession of Italy, and opened up once more the eternal Eastern 
question, which had been compsiratively quiet since the powers had 

2 c 2 



746 GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR [191 1- 

put an end to the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. There had been many 
disputes among the Christian states, between which the greater 
part of the Balkan peninsula had been divided since 1878. These 
became the more dangerous since Turkey went through a domestic 
revolution in 1909. By this the Sultan, who had so 
Revolution, cruelly oppressed the Armenians, was overthrown, and 
^^°^* a new government set up, controlled by the Young 

Turks, who boasted that they would revive the Turkish power by 
introducing western methods of democracy and liberty. They 
sought and obtained support in Germany, and prepared to re- 
organise the Turkish army under German advisers. But the 
Christian subjects of Turkey, ^ finding the rule of the Young 
Turks as oppressive as that of the old Sultans, rose up in revolt, 
especially in Macedonia. The Christian rebels included Greeks, 
Serbs, and Bulgars, but the kingdoms of Greece, Serbia, and 
Bulgaria were prevented by their jealousies of each other from 
rendering effective aid to them. For a time the Macedonian 
troubles were thrown into the background by the war which broke 
The T - ^^* between 1911 and 1912 between Italy and Turkey, 
Italian war. To the disgust of Germany and Austria, Italy im- 
posed a peace upon the Turks by which Tripoli and 
many islands in the Eastern ^gean remained in her hands. 

13. Worse for Germany was now to come, for the conclusion of 
the peace between Italy and Turkey was followed by the serious 
Th B Ik renewal of the Balkan troubles. The easy defeat of 
League, the Turks encouraged the Balkan peoples to make up 

their feuds, and in 1912 all, except Bumania, joined in 
the Balkan League, concluded through the wise statesmanship of 
the Greek Prime Minister, Venizelos. In 1912 the league took 
up arms against the Turks, and drove them out of Macedonia. 
Behind the Balkan League was the unconcealed support of Russia, 
and the sympathy of the Western powers. But its success im- 
perilled Germany's schemes of using her Turkish tools to establish 
her influence in Western Asia, and to threaten the British power 
in Egypt and India. The league even more directly attacked 
And its Austria, because the expansion of Serbia blocked her 

■dissolution, path to Salonica, and exposed her to the danger of 
Serbia becoming the champion of the Southern Slavs of 
Croatia and Bosnia. By the help of the German princes, who reigned 
over most of the Balkan States, Germany and Austria broke up the 
Balkan League. Their task was the easier since Greece and Serbia 
were quarrelling with Bulgaria over the division of the Turkish 



-I9I4-] GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR 747 

spoils. Biilg-aria now went to war against lier rivals, whereupon 
Turkey resumed hostilities against her. But Eumania, hitherto 
neutral, joined in the attack on Bulgaria, which was soon forced to 
disgorge many of her conquests. The intervention of the powers 
forced an unsatisfactory peace on the Balkans in September, 1913. 
By it Tui'key in Europe was reduced to the districts between 
Adrianople and Constantinople, and the Balkan States, to which 
Albania was added, received large accessions of territory. But 
Austria annexed Bosnia, and stopped Serbia from access to the 
sea. Moreover, Bulgaria secretly joined hands with the Central 
Powers, and, like Turkey, courted their support to re-establish 
her position at the expense of the Serbs. 

14 A great change now took place in German policy. There 
had long been an active German war party, but hitherto it had been 
kept in some check by the Emperor. But the threatened withdrawal 
of Italy from his alliance and the inability of the Central Powers 
to stop the increase of Serbian territories convinced him that the 
time was come when Germany must fight. If this was to be done, 
the sooner the war began the better, since Germany 
was ready, and her rivals, despite their elaborate pre- If ^fpaf^o 
parations, were neither willing nor able to bring their and its 
forces rapidly into the field. An accidental calamity quences, 
soon gave the pretext to fire the train which set the June- 
world ablaze. In June, 1914, as the archduke Francis 1914. 
Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was driving 
through the streets of Serajevo, the Bosnian capital, he was assassi- 
nated by a Serb fanatic. Austria accused Serbia of complicity in the 
crime, and demanded her unconditional submission. Serbia yielded 
nearly all that was asked, but in her terror appealed to Russia, the 
natural protector of Sbvonic peoples in distress. Eussia answered 
by setting her army on a war footing, whereupon Austria began 
hostilities against Serbia. Germany, which knew and approved 
of Austria's action, ordered Eussia to demobilize under thi-eat of 
immediate war. On Eussia's refusal, Germany and Austria de- 
clared war against her. Thereupon France, as bound by treaty, 
took up arms in defence of her eastern ally. Thus a general 
European war became inevitable. 

15. The only question still open was what Britain was to do. 
In order to prevent the war. Sir Edward Grey proposed to refer 
all disputes to a European conference ; but the Central Powers 
contemptuously rejected his suggestion. Germany persuaded her- 
self that Britain was too conscious of her military weakness, too 



748 GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR [19 14. 

mucli wedded to the doctrine of peace at any price, and too fearful 
of civil war in Ireland to venture to draw the sword. Yet she 
hated and feared Britain even more than her con- 
joins the tinental enemies, knowing that Britain's sea-power 

war, Aug. 4, gtood between her and the schemes of maritime and 
1914. 

colonial expansion which were dearer to Germany than 

even continental ascendancy. In her eag-erness to make the war short 
and decisive, she wantonly provoked British hostility by demand- 
ing- from Belgium a passage for her troops through Belgian terri- 
tory in order that she mig'ht strike at France on her unprotected 
northern frontier. The neutrality of Belgium had been solemnly 
proclaimed by all the powers after her independence had first been 
established, and Britain was known to lay special stress upon its 
maintenance. But Britain was roughly told that treaties were 
but " scraps of paper," and that Germany was resolved to take 
the shortest road to victory. This gross contempt for public 
law silenced the last hesitation on Britain's part. Impelled by 
interest and honour to support France and Russia from wanton 
attack, she was doubly bound to stand forth as the protector of a 
weak state like Belgium, and to vindicate the sanctity of inter- 
national law against the doctrine that might makes right. On 
August 4 she went to war against the Central Powers. Great levies 
of men and vast grants of money were made. Kitchener was 
appointed war minister ; all the available forces, amounting to 
about 150,000 men, were sent over the Channel under Sir John 
French. The navy, under Admiral Jellicoe, was already prepared 
to convoy the expeditionary force and uphold British supremacy 
on the seas against the new German navy. 

16. The early course of the war went almost as the Germans 
had expected. The little Belgian army was overwhelmed, and a 

huge German force marched through conquered 
sion^o/^" Belgium into France. By this time British troops 

Franee. were ioining with the French, but it was impossible 

Auffust « <-j ^ -I. 

1914. ' for the northern army of the allies to hold its own 

against the overwhelming numbers of the invaders. 

Defeated at first between Mons and Charleroi, and later on the 

line between Cambrai and Le Cateau, the Anglo-French army 

was driven back into the heart of France. The Germans crossed 

the Marne and threatened Paris. 

17. The French government fled to Bordeaux. A fresh army, 
assembled to defend Paris, held the line of the Ourcq, a northern 
tributary of the Marne. It thus stood on the right flank of the 



I9I4-] GEORGE V. AXD THE GREAT WAR 



749 




750 GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR [19 14. 

advancing- Grermans. But the Germans, despising their enemies, 
pushed on southwards. Thereupon the French, with wise daring, 
The battles ^^ fiercely on their flank. Meanwhile, the beaten 
of the armies of 'France and England made a wonderful re- 

of the CO very. Between 6 and 10 Sept. Paris was saved by 

Aisne. ^j^^ hattle of the Marne. The Germans were beaten back 

from the Marne to the Aisne, where they dug themselves in so 
effectively that the allies were brought to a standstill. After a 
fortnight of hard fighting, called the battle of the Aisne, the French: 
and English, also entrenched themselves opposite the Germans. 

18. With, rare insight Kitchener foretold three years of war, 
and set doggedly to work to create a British army that could play 
its fair share in the defence of the freedom of Europe, The 
danger, however, though less immediate, was still imminent. A 
desperate attempt to save Antwerp by a hastily levied British 
force failed lamentably, and all Belgium fell into the Germans' 
hands, save a little scrap of south-western Flanders, in the midst 

of which was the historic town of Ypres. To pre- 

of Yppes,^ serve this fragment, French's army was skilfully 

P^l-r^^^'' transferred from its first position on the Aisne to the 
1914. . 

northern sector, where it joined hands with, what was 

left of tbe troops who bad failed at Antwerp. The Germans 

desperately tried to break through their thin lines in the first 

hattle of Ypres between October 20 and November 11. But the 

British., though forced back, did not yield before the sevenfold 

odds brougbt against them. Thereupon both, sides settled down 

to the monotony of winter trench warfare. 

19. The positions taken up by the rival armies in November, 
1914, remained substantially the same until the summer of 1918. 

The allied line ran from the North Sea near Nieuport, 
fieUi^f ^ '^ along the Yser, and bending just east of Ypres, crossed 
battle, the Lys near Armentieres and continued southwards, 

west of Lille, to the eastern suburbs of Arras, and 
tbence by Albert on the Ancre, to the Somme. A few miles to the 
south, it bent eastwards to the Oise, and thence along the Aisne 
and the Vesle to Reims, whence the trenches stretched to the 
borders of Lorraine, and then, bending southwards again, almost 
followed the frontier up to the Swiss border. The Belgians held 
the trenches along the Yser ; the British stretched from the Yser 
to near A.rras, and when her new levies were ready, took over 
more of the line until, within two years, their posts extended to 
the Somme. The rest of the front was defended by the French. 



I9I4-] 



.GEORGE V. AXD THE GREAT WAR 



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752 GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR [1915- 

20. Along the 400 miles between the sea and the Jura constant 
engagements raged, involving the loss of myriads of lives but in 

no substantial way affecting the balance of fortune, 
of trench The allies held on, hoping that time would enable them 
Yiii^iiil *^ ^^^^8" their full forces to the fight. The Germans, 

though not anticipating a war of positions, showed 
great skill in adapting themselves to its requirements. Their 
interest was still to quicken the pace. By concentrating huge 
masses of troops on weak places of the enemy's line, they strove 
to force their way through. But none of these attempts had any 
real measure of success. In the second battle of Ypres (22 April- 
13 May, 1915) they narrowed down the British salient, but could 
not capture Ypres, much less fight their way to Calais. In the 
battle of Verdun (Feb.-April, 1916) they advanced almost to 
the waUs of the hardly beset fortress city of the Meuse, but were 
at last brought to a standstill, and soon to yield ground before 
fierce French counter-attacks. The allies were not more fortunate 
in their attempts to beat back the Germans. The French advances 
involved huge sacrifice of life. The British attempts to break the 
lines that blocked the approach to Lille were almost as costly. The 
unbounded hopes, excited by such local successes as the capture of 
Neuve Cha^pelle (10 March, 1915), were soon shown to be vain. 
The most important offensive in which British and French shared 
was that called the battle of the Somme, which began in July, 1916, 
and continued for the rest of the year. The winter-struggle 
which succeeded it, called the battle of the Ancre (18 IS'ovember to 
11 March, 1917), carried the allies to the gates of Bapaume and 
Peronne. It was the first offensive that seriously contracted the 
enemy's line. Yet neither French nor British were ready for a 
great advance. The British were at a special disadvantage by 
reason of weak numbers, insuificient munitions, and sometimes bad 
staff -work as well. But the allies accomplished at least as much 
as their enemies. 

21. There was also fighting on a vast scale in Eastern Europe 
between the Central Powers and Russia. The Russians began 
The Cam- ^^^ ^J ^^^ invasions of East Prussia, but the Germans 
paigns found a saviour in General Hindenburg, who drove the 
Russia, enemy back into his own territories. Hindenburg 
1914-1917. then fought his way through Russian Poland into 
Lithuania and the Baltic Provinces. There were even greater 
changes of fortune in the struggle between the Austrians and the 
southern armies of Russia. The Austrians failed to overrun 



-191 7-] GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR 753 

the little Serbian Kingdom and to defend Galicia from invasion. 
By April, 1915, the Russians were on the crest of the Cari)athians, 
threatening the rich Hungarian plain. But Germany came to the 
help of her ally, and General Mackensen's victory on the Dunajec, 
in May, 1915, completely changed the situation. Galicia was 
rapidly recovered and the Austro-German eastern front was soon 
pushed forwards from the Rumanian frontier to the Baltic near 
Riga, leaving a great extent of Russian territory in their 
possession. There were stiU ebbs and flows in the tide of eastern 
warfare up to the summer of 1916, when a notable Russian 
advance at the expense of the Au^trians was made. But 
Hindenburg now threw such strong forces on to the eastern 
front that the ill-armed, ill-equipped Russian armies fled rapidly 
before him. Ignorance, incompetence and treachery had sapped 
the resources of the great Russian Empire, and the Tsar, Nicholas 11., 
was powerless to set things right. It was in vain that Rumania, 
after long hesitation, came to Russia's assistance. Thereupon 
Bulgaria, which had already joined Turkey in declaring for the 
Central Powers, helped Austria to crush Serbia, and fell upon 
Rumania from the south. Before long Mackensen overran 
Wallachia and forced Rumania to accept a dictated peace. Mean- 
while in March, 1917, the unhappy Tsar was driven from his throne. 
But the Russian revolution did not establish a strong government. 
Attempts at constitutional monarchy and a socialist republic proved 
failures, and power was usurped by a gang* of bloodthirsty fanatics 
called Bolsheviks, who reduced Russia to anarchy. Long before 
they made a disg^-aceful betrayal of their country and its allies in 
the treaty of Brest-Litovsk (3 March, 1918), German influence had 
been established over Russia, and her troops were free to join 
hands with their comrades in the west. Luckily the seething 
confusion that prevailed after the treaty prevented the Central 
Powers from enjoying the fruits of their victory. 

22. A third field of war was opened up when Tui-key joined the 
Central Powers. Her threats against the Suez Canal forced 
Britain to collect an army in Egypt to safeguard the 
means of access to India. The khedive of Egypt, who nelles^^ *' 
upheld the Turkish cause, was deposed by the British, ^|'/^^®» 
who declared Egypt a protectorate free from Tui-kish 
suzerainty, and set up as its sultan a loyal member of the khedive's 
house. A bold design was now conceived of striking at the heart 
of Turkey by seizing the Dardanelles. But the plan was badly 
executed. A futile naval demonstration in February and March, 



754 GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR [1915- 

1915, showed the continued trntli of the old doctrine that ships 
were powerless ag-ainst land-fotts. The attack also gave the 
Turks ample warning to prepare for the army that only reached 
the Dardanelles late in April. The new force was conspicuous for 
the large proportion of Australian, New Zealand, and British 
" territorial " troops which it included. Their successful landing 
amidst the greatest difficulties shewed that these inexperienced 
citizen soldiers were well worthy to fight side by side with the 
old army. Unluckily the initial success of the landing was not 
followed up. The Turkish lines cooped up the aUied force into 
the narrow peninsula which separates the Dardanelles from the 
northern ^gean. Constantly exposed to shell-fire, suffering 
cruelly at each gallant attempt to drive the Turks farther back, 
insufficient in number for their terrific task, and inadequately 
directed by their higher command, they more than held their own 
from April to December. But, in October, Bulgaria's entry 
into the war enabled Germany to send officers and munitions 
to stiffen the Turkish resistance. The Greek king, Constantino, 
a brother-in-law of William 11., dismissed Yenizelos, who had hoped 
to send Greek troops to co-operate with the allies, and henceforth 
did all that he dared to help the Germans. At last the Dardanelles 
expedition was safely and ably withdrawn. 

23. The Turks were attacked in other quarters. Russia con- 
quered from them a great part of Armenia, and an expedition, 

mainly provided by India, sailed up the Persian Gulf, 
The war in occupied Basra, and by iffovember, 1915, marched 
Mesopo- ' within twenty miles of Bagdad. But it was too small 
MaSedonia. ^^^d iH equipped for so great an enterprise. Finally, 

the advanced section was besieged at Kut-el-Amara, 
The efforts to relieve it were badly conducted, and on 29 April, 

1916, the defenders of Kut became Turkish prisoners. The double 
disaster on the Dardanelles and in Mesopotamia reduced British 
reputation to a low ebb in the East. Nor was any fresh credit 
won by the occupation of Salonica by a mixed army of the allies. 
The Salonica force came too late to save Serbia, and was reduced 
to helplessness by the treachery of the Greek king. 

24. A fresh gleam of hope came in May, 1916, when Italy, 
The war which had, by remaining neutral in 1914, broken away 
between from the Triple Alliance, joined the war. After that 
Austria, the Italians slowly fought their way over the Austrian 
1916-1917. frontier towards Trent and Trieste, the chief towns 
of that " unredeemed Italy " which they hoped to conquer. 



-I9i6.] GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR 755 

25. Of vital moment to Britain was the struggle on the seas. 
At first the Germans wrought much havoc upon allied merchant 
ships, raided the English coast, and won a pitched 

battle over a weak British squadron off the coast of maey of ''^' 
Chile. But before long British naval supremacy de- ^^® ^®*^' 
cisively asserted itself. The mighty fleet, which Germany had 
equipped to challenge the British sovereignty of the seas, was shut 
up in the well-protected area of the North German coast, of which 
Heligoland was the outpost. Its only serious attempt to break 
out was rudely checked by admirals Jellicoe and Beatty, whose 
victory in the hattle off Jutland on 31 May, 1916, put an end to 
the war between Dreadnoughts for which both nations were prepared. 

26. A first result of British supremacy at sea was the conquest 
of the German colonies by the British dominions and their allies. 
Wliile Japan captured the German strongholds in 

China, Australia and New Zealand laid hands on those in the 
in the Pacific, and British South Africa and India dominions, 
supplied the main force that expelled the Germans from Africa, 
German East Africa resisted the longest, but was finally subdued 
by a force commanded by General Smuts, who, like Botha, the 
South African Prime Minister, had fought against Britain in the 
Boer War. German attempts to stir up rebellion in India, South 
Africa, and elsewhere failed lamentably, and only strengthened the 
ties which bound together the British dominions. The large 
armies sent to fight in Europe and the East by Canada, which 
established compulsory service, Australia, New Zealand, and South 
Africa shewed, equally with the great military efforts of India in 
nearly every field of the war, the solidarity of the British Empire. 

27. Worsted on the sea and in the colonies, Germany launched 
new blows against Britain. The submarine and the mine made a 
blockade in the old sense impossible, and rendered it -.. , 
difficult even to confine German warships to the har- marine 
hours to which they had been driven. But Germany's ^^^' ' 
chief triumph was in her discovery of the aggressive use of the sub- 
marine against merchant ships, through which she struck a more 
dangerous blow against British command of the seas than ever 
Napoleon had done. The British islands she declared to be 
blockaded, and all ships faring thither became liable to be blown 
up .by torpedoes or gunfire from unseen enemies. A new fashion 
of naval warfare had to be devised to counteract the German power 
under the seas which made nugatory British control over their sur- 
face, and for the first time in history made Britain vulnerable despite 



756 GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR [1915- 

her insular position. One result of German policy was the gradual 
alienation of the neutral powers, and in particiilar of the United 
States, which strongly resented such crimes as the sinking the 
great Cunard liner the Lusitania (7 May, 1915) and the conse- 
quent loss of over a thousand innocent passengers and sailors, 
both British and American, The most eminent victim of the new 
warfare at sea was Kitchener, who perished on his way to Russia, 
the cruiser on which he was sailing being destroyed, probably by a 
mine, on a stormy night off the Orkneys. 

28. The wholesale destruction of non-combatants, both enemies 
and neutrals, was, however, part of the deliberate policy of 
ruthlessness by which Germany believed she would terrorize the 
world into submission. Other phases of the same brutality in- 
cluded the imprisonment of British subjects found 

pol1c3?o?^" in Germany at the outbreak of war, the ill-treatment 
ruthless- of both civilian and military prisoners, and the send- 
ing of great air-ships called Zeppelins, and later 
of aeroplanes, to drop bombs at random on British cities. None 
of these things, though adding immensely to human suffering 
and increasing the sum of material losses, had any real effect in 
altering the fortunes of war. The only serious menace was that 
of the submarine, which destroyed a large proportion both of 
British and of neutral merchant shipping, and brought Britain 
within measurable distance of famine. Happily Britain could 
effectively retaliate by stopping all German sea-borne trade. As 
time went on, she devised measures of protection which made the 
submarine war very perilous to the German sailors engaged in it. 
Moreover the need of fighting the submarine made every merchant 
ship and seaman in effect a naval combatant. Just as the lands- 
man fought on shore, so did every seafarer fight on the ocean in 
the national struggle. 

29. After three years of world warfare, it looked as if it were 
impossible for either side to secure a real decision. The deadlock 
m. « -4.1. iu the west and the disasters in the east made men 

Tne ASQUltn J T J .11 1 ' 

National anxious whether all that was possible was being done 
June 1915. ^^ bring about victory. These doubts resulted in two 
successive reconstructions of the ministry which, 
though working vigorously, and in some ways successfully, 
had not always risen to the occasion. The first reconstruction 
was in June, 1915, when a " National Ministry " was formed 
in which the politicians of various parties took effice under 
Asquith. Bonar Law, a Glasgow merchant, who had been 



-I9i6.] GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR 



7S7 



Conservative leader since Balfour's resignation of that post in 
1911, became Secretary for the Colonies, and Balfour- himself First 
Lord of the Admiralty. Room was also found for several of the 
Labour Leaders. At the same time a Ministry of Munitions was 
established under Lloyd G-eorge, whose efforts soon put an end to 
the lack of shells, which had stayed our early offensive. Equip- 
ment was thus provided for our rapidly increasing* armies. 

30. The new ministry did not work much better than its 
predecessor. It had less unity : its cabinet was even larger, and 
therefore more incapable of directing war policy, and it suffered from 
the lack of responsible criticism, as there was no longer a strong 
opposition. The progress of the war continued to be unsatisfac- 
tory, and Lord Kitchener, though doing a great work in creating 
a vast new army, was less successful as head of a great 

political department. The millions of soldiers required Rebellion, 
for the war could not bei acquired by voluntary en- fofg®''' 
listment, and the ministry carried, in Jan., 1916, an 
act authorising compulsory service for Great Britain, but excluding 
Ireland from the Act, in deference to Irish Nationalist opinion. 
But the extreme school of Irish Nationalists, called tlie Sinn 
Feiners, rex)udiated Redmond's leadership, and declared for an 
Irish Republic. German intrig'uers strove to stir up a rebellion, 
and Sinn Fein played into their hands. On Easter Monday, 1916, 
there was fierce fighting in the streets of Dublin, where the Sinn 
Feiners were only put down after grievous bloodshed. 

31. After Kitchener's tragic death, Lloyd George became War 
Minister. He had already shown gifts of imagination, leadership, 
and insight that gave him a foremost position among 

his colleagues and a still greater hold over a public Lloyd 
opinion, increasingly impatient of half measures becomes the 
and failures. Lloyd George soon convinced himself feader^ 
that the methods of Government that had grown up 
in peace time were ill adapted for a struggle for existence. In 
Dec, 1916, he offered the alternative of extensive changes or 
his retirement. Thereupon Asquith resigned and many official 
Liberals withdrew with him. 

32. Lloyd G-eorge became Prime Minister of a comprehensive 
Coalition, united by the intent to win the war. The jj^g Lloyd 
conduct of the war was entrusted to a special war ^^^^f ^ 
cabinet of five, which, it was hoped, would act with the Ministry, 
necessary unity and promptitude, while the heads of ^^^-^ ^9^^* 
the great departments were left free to devote themselves to 



758 GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR [1917- 

tlieir particular business. Special features of the new govern- 
ment were its creation of new departments to supply war needs, 
such as controllersliips of shipping- and food supply, and its inclu- 
sion of ministers who had hitherto taken no part in political life. 

33. A great change was soon brought about by the new ministry. 
A new spirit was given to the conduct of the war when the 

headquarters general staff, destroyed by Kitchener, 

The Opgani- ^^^ ^^^^^ ^ :^^ chiefs to France, was reconstituted. 

z&tion or 

the nation Jellicoe was called from the Grrand Fleet to do a 

war. similar work for the Navy, leaving his command at 

sea to Admiral Beatty. Energetic steps were taken to grapple 

with the submarine peril, the supply of food, and the replacing of 

the lost merchantmen by new tonnage. It was found necessary for 

the state to control the supply of bread, meat, coal, wool, fats, and 

many other articles in universal use. The crucial problem of the 

supply of labour was seriously grappled with, and power was taken 

to settle compulsorily trade disputes. The State enormously 

widened its powers, and in so doing necessarily made many bad 

mistakes. But this was the inevitable penalty of our unprepared- 

ness, and, despite much friction, the new system of the subordination 

of the individual to the nee^s of society worked sufficiently well to 

make easier the continued progress of the war. To end the war 

by an honourable peace was still a far-away hope ; but the spirit in 

which the nation, with rare exceptions, rose to the emergency 

destroyed every craven fear of defeat and every wish for a patched- 

up peace. Thus the greatest crisisft)f British history was met by 

exertions worthy of the times. 

34. Under these changed conditions, the allies approached 
the campaign of 1917 with renewed hopes. At first all seemed to 

go well. The Somme offensive of 1916 had hit the 
and^failures ©nemy so hard that in March, 1917, he voluntarily with- 
in the West, drew his troops eastwards, staying his retreat on the 

line between Cambrai and Saint - Quentin, where 
Hindenburg, called from the east to conquer the west, fortified 
the elaborate Hindeyiburg line which was believed to be impreg- 
nable. There was progress too in Artois, wheiie in April the 
commanding Yimy ridge was captured, and in Flanders, where 
the Ypres salient was widened by General Plumer's army storm- 
ing the Messines ridge in June. Again at Yerdun and in 
Champagne the French made slow but decided progress- These 
were greater successes than the allies had ever won, but they were 
stiU. too weak to follow them up. A sharp check on the renewed 



-I9i8.] GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR y-g 

British offensive happened in November, after our arms had pene- 
trated to Cambrai. Horrified at their losses, the French resolved 
not to repeat the offensive on a large scale. Worst of all, the 
Italians received an unexpected check. In October the Austro- 
Germans broke through the ItaKan line at Caporetto and overran 
the Venetian plain as far as the Piave. But the Italians, helped 
by British and French troops, made a gallant recovery and the 
Austro-German advance was stayed. 

35. In the west the war of 1917 began well and ended badly ; 
in the east it began badly and ended well. Eussia made her 
last vain efforts and slowly drifted out of the war. However, in 
Greece King Constantine's treachery was punished in June by 
his deposition and Venizelos as the minister of his 
successor, reconstituted the Greek army and put it Eastern 

at the disposal of the allies. Yet the collapse of victories 
Rumania set free large German and Bulgarian troops, 
and the aUied Macedonian force was reduced to inaction. But 
the army, long kept idle in Egypt, was transferred to the Pales- 
tine frontier, where at first natural difiiculties, and sluggish 
leadership, made its progress slow. In October a fresh spirit 
was put into the army by its new commander, General AUenby, 
who defeated the Turks between Gaza and Beersheba. In Meso- 
potamia a new general, Sir Stanley Maude, avenged the capitulation 
of Kut by recapturing the scene of the Turkish triumph. On 
15 March he penetrated to Bagdad. 

36. Most important of all the events of 1917 was the addition 
of the United States to our allies. From 1 Feb. onwards the 
Germans declared an "unrestricted submarine cam- . . 
paign," by which aU shipping, trading with any of the joins the 
allied nations, was to be sunk at sight. This policy 

was intensely resented by the Americans, already aggrieved by 
the loss of many American ships and seamen and by the plots of 
the Austrian and German embassies at Washington. It required 
gross blundering on the Germans' part to force America to 
abandon her long tradition of abstention from European politics. 
The American President, Woodrow Wilson, wisely allowed matters 
to move slowly, so that when the Germans had filled up the cup of 
their offences, it was at the head of a united nation that, on 
6 April, 1917, he declared war. Like Britain, America set to 
work, with extraordinary success, to make a great army. The 
submarine menace was shown to be iUusory when hundreds of 
thousands of American soldiers were safely convoyed across the 



760 GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR [1918. 

Atlantic. The adhesion of America was much more than a com- 
pensation for the collapse of Russia. It wds the more valuable 
since America joined the war, as her President said, " to make the 
world safe for democracy." It was more clear than ever that the 
war was a fight of freedom and right against autocracy and might. 

37. The beginning of 1918 saw the allies weakened by their 
recent offensive and the Germans strengthened by fresh troopsi 
and cannon from the east. The Germans' game was now, as in 
1914, to strike hard and quickly before the Americans arrived in 
force. The first step of a general German offensive began on 
21st March, when the thin line of the fifth British army, between 
the Sensee and Saint- Quentin was broken through. In a few days 

the Germans were back in the old battlefields on the 
German^* Somme and Ancre, and pushed their advance to within 
ofTensive, a few miles of Amiens, so that there was danger of 
1918. their working down the Somme to the sea, and cutting 

off the British from the French. This serious blow 
was followed by others. Though the British front at Arras 
stood firm, the Germans farther north nearly drove a wedge 
between the British in Flanders and their army in Artois. Against 
the French the Germans advanced down the Oise nearly to Com- 
piegne. Finally, a successful offensive farther east brought them 
from the Aisne to beyond the Marne. It was a crisis, almost as 
acute as that of Sept., 1914. 

38. It was well that the resisting power of France was still 
great, while that of Britain had been multiplied tenfold. All 
The unitv ^^® threatened armies made a surprising recovery. 
of com- In their offensive the 'Germans had abandoned the 

indecisive war of trenches, but the allies soon learnt 
to meet their new tactics and to improve upon them. The allied 
soldiers had never failed in courage and hopefulness ; the real 
difficulty was that each army had acted as a separate unit, and that 
there had been no single directive mind to plan and order the 
whole campaig'n. At this crisis Lloyd George once more shewed 
rare insight and leadership. He insisted that a sing-le general 
should be appointed to co-ordinate and direct the whole of the 
allied armies. Undaunted by the resignation of both the Chief 
of the British General Staff and the British War Minister, he 
persevered until he gained his point. Marshal Foch was chosen 
as the generalissimo of all the British and French armies, the 
British Commander, Sir Douglas Haig, who had succeeded French, 
loyally falling in with the new situation. For the first time a 



19 1 8.] GEORGE V, AND THE GREAT WAR 76 1 

concerted plan of campaign was executed to meet the German 
attack. The Germans made no more progress. Amiens was saved 
and Paris preserved from danger. Meanwhile the armies were 
strengthened and reorganised ; and hundreds of thousands of fresh 
Americans took up their posts beside their war-worn allies. 

39. Foch bided his time, but by the middle of July he began his 
counter-offensive, and the whole situation changed as if by magic. 
Swinging blows were dealt against the enemy, now on one part of 
the line, then on another. Overstrained by their great effort of 
the spring, the Germans had few fresh resources to meet the 
new danger. They stiU fought magnificently, but their owi^ new 
methods were bettered and turned against them. The first stage 
of Foch's campaign was the second battle of the Marne, 

fought under similar conditions to those of the first fiP^vv "^"^ 
Marne battle of 1914. The two sides of the German tide, July- 
salient towards the Marne were attacked with such fg^g?"^ 
success that by the end of July the French were back 
on the Aisne. Meanwhile the French moved slowly up the Oise, 
whilQ between Ypres and the Somme the British fought their way 
eastwards with almost uniform success. In August the pace was 
quickened, and it became more rapid with each succeeding month. 
By the end of September the line of 1917 was more than restored. 

40. Meanwhile there was even more rapid progress in the East. 
In Mesopotamia Maude died in the midst of his triumphs ; but his 
successor, General Marshall, pushed northwards to- 
wards Mosul. In Palestine Allenby, a born cavalry ^ssfon of 
leader, out-manoeuvred the Turks by rapid sweeps Turkey and 
of his great force of Indian, Colonial, and Yeomanry 1918. ' 
horse. After occupying Jerusalem, he advanced to 
Damascus and Beirut, and on 26 October he completed the con- 
quest of Syria by seizing Aleppo, cutting thus the railway line 
that fed the Turks in Mesopotamia. Most surprising of all, the 
Macedonian army broke its long spell of inaction, and drove a 
wedge through the Bulgarian- German armies so successfully that 
on 29 September Bulgaria made an unconditional surrender. 
This completed the isolation of Turkey, already severely tried by 
the loss of Syria and Mesopotamia. After the delays inevitable 
from Turkish indecision and procrastination, the Sultan made 
his complete submission, and obtained from the allies a cessation 
of hostilities, dating from 1 November. With the collapse of 
Bulgaria and Turkey the eastern designs of the Central Powers 
were utterly frustrated. 



762 GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR [1918. 

41. Austria meanwliile had long- been struggling- against 
threatened insurrection and extreme exhaustion at home. She 
now saw Serbia and Montenegro gradually reconquered by the 
allies, while Albania was overrun by the Italians and the Adriatic 
ports made useless by the naval activity of her enemies. More- 
TheSubmls- ^^^^' ^^^^ ^^ October an Italian advance from the 
sion of Piave undid the work of October, 1917, and soon won 

us ria. such prodigious success that a mere remnant of the 

Austro -Hungarian army was driven in panic flight from the 
Piave into Austrian territory. Thereupon Slavonic Austria rose 
in ravolt, and even Hungary saw that the g*ame was up. The 
Austrian government now declared itself eager to accept peace on 
conditions laid down by the American President. On 3 November 
it thankfully accepted an armistice on terms that left unredeemed 
Italy and Dalmatia in the allies' possession, and made impossible 
its further participation in the war. Since then the Austro- 
Hungarian state has dethroned its sovereign and broken up into 
its natural national elements. 

42. The most important result of the triumph of the allies against 

Bulgaria, Turkey, and Austria was its decisive effect on the situation 

in France and Flanders. In October, while the allies 
The ... 

reconquest were driving their eastern enemies out of the field, 

of Northern their successes in the west became more marvellous 

France and mi i i • 

Flanders, than ever. The much vaunted Hmdenburg line, 

1918.^^' defended with stubborn courage by the Germans, did 

not keep back for long their victorious progress. 

During October the tide of war swept eastwards beyond Cambrai 

and Saint- Quentin, northwards beyond La Fere and Laon. The 

Americans, operating as an independent force for the first time, 

destroyed the dangerous German salient of Saint-Mihiel on the 

Meuse, and then fought their way desperately through the defiles 

of the Argonne, and down the Meuse valley. The Belgians, 

led by their King Albert, began to win back their plundered 

homes. Early in October, the Germans made overtures for an 

armistice to President Wilson, but were told that they must 

evacuate all conquered territory, and give evidence that they could 

be trusted, before negotiations could even begin. Even this austere 

Peace answer was not rejected^ for Germany clearly ap- 

Proposals. preached the end of her resources, and the autocratic 

Emperor was compelled by German opinion to accept new ministers 

professing anxiety for peace. Meanwhile the allied forces moved 

on from success to success. On one astounding day, 17 October, 



jl 



I9i8.] GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR y6^ 

the Belgians reg-ained Ostend and advanced to the outskirts of 
Bruges, while the British entered unopposed into LiUe and Douai. 
By the end of October all West Flanders was conquered, while 
further south the German occupation of France was reduced to 
very restricted limits. 

43. So long as the Germans continued to resist stubbornly, 
there was little progress in the negotiations. But the collapse of 
Austria forced the Germans to see that further resistance was 
useless, so that the strenuous efforts of the military «,u « « 
ciass to rally the nation to defend its threatened fron- tiee, Nov., 
tiers fell flat. On 9 November German envoys appeared 

at Foch's headquarters, and transmitted home the conditions on 
which he would grant an armistice. The German surrender 
was now hastened by a revolt of the fleet, risings in the large 
towns and the flight of William ii. to HoMand. On November 11 
Germany accepted the armistice, and on the last morning of 
hostilities the British entered Mens, where more than four years 
earlier they had fired their first shots, and the French and Americans 
advanced to Sedan. By the terms imposed by Foch the allies were 
to hold the line of the Rhine, and Germany was to ^surrender 
most of its military stores and fleet. There may still be delay 
before a formal treaty can be settled, but the armistice shows the 
certainty of an honourable peace upon terms that will remove from 
the world the perils of German domination. 

44. The strenuous military effort of Britain was the more 
wonderful since many home problems seemed so pressing that the 
Lloyd George government felt compelled to deal with u-j^g 
them, even at the risk of diverting attention from Problems, 

• . 1 916-191 8 

getting on with the war. These were the condition of 

Ireland, the reform of parliament and the establishment on broader 

lines of a national system of education. 

In Ireland, the military government, set up after the Dublin 
rebellion, maintained order but increased discontent. Bye elections 
showed that the Nationalist voters were abandoning Ireland and 
their old leaders in favour of Sinn Fein, and it was Sinn Fein: 
to little purpose that the "parliamentary party" vied with the 
Sinn Feiners in their denunciations of the government. This was 
especially the case when, after the death of John Redmond, who 
had supported the war, his place as Nationalist leader went to John 
Dillon, who refused to help recruiting, and strongly opposed a 
tardy proposal of the government to extend compulsory service to 
Ireland. Under such conditions attempts at conciliation necessarily 



764 GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR [191 7- 

broke down. An Irish Convention, in which Unionists and 
!N^ationalists discussed the possibility of a common policy of Irish 
reform, produced no result. Meanwhile the party of Dillon, 
though clamouring for the execution of the Home Rule Act, 
declared that no conscription was acceptable unless imposed by an 
Irish Parliament. This demand involved the repudiation of the Act 
of 1914, which had reserved national defence to the Westminster 
parliament. The vacillations of the government, which first pro- 
posed and then postponed indefinitely a plan for Irish conscription, 
only made matters worse. It became clear that the Irish question 
could only be settled after the peace. Meanwhile the centraliza- 
tion of all administration in London as a result of war conditions 
was creating a reaction in favour of some federal scheme for all 
parts of the United Kingdom, as a result of which some of the 
more obvious Irish complaints might be remedied. Beyond that, 
the magnificent part played by the Dominions beyond the seas in 
the great war, broug'ht to thoughtful minds a more distinct vision 
of some Imperial federation by which the various units of the 
Empire, while each living in perfect freedom, could be brought 
together by a common machinery to formulate imperial policy and 
defence. 

45. General agreement made easy the passage of a new Reform 
Act in 1917. By it a further approach was made towards universal 

suffrage in three chief directions. The number of 
mentapy voters was increased, notably by the simpKfication of 
^f ^*918 ^^^ registration, the shortening of the qualifying term 

of residence, by giving votes to all sailors and soldiers, 
even when on service abroad, and by extending the franchise to all 
women over thirty years of age, who had the qualifications of male 
voters or were the wives of voters. This latter change was yielded 
by general consent as a recognition of the work done by women for 
the national defence, though fear of the women outvoting the men 
led in their case to an illogical postponement of the voting age. 
A further approach towards equality of representation was made 
by depriving towns of under fifty thousand inhabitants of their 
members, by redistributing the constituencies according to popu- 
lation, a process which largely increased the number of repre- 
sentatives of the great towns and industrial districts. No voter 
was allowed to vote for more than two constituencies, and the 
freehold franchise for counties was abolished. The Irish members 
were kept at their old number, so that Ireland became more over- 
represented then ever. All elections were henceforth to be held 



-I9i8.] GEORGE V. AND THE GREAT WAR 765 

on the same day, and the first general election under the franchise 

was subsequently fixed for 14 December, 1918. 

46. Among- the new men brought into politics in 1916 was 

Herbert Fisher, a University teacher, who was made Minister of 

Education on the novel ground of his acquaintance 

with the subject. The Education Act of 1918, and Education 

the administrative reforms attending it, extended the National 

principle of the Act of 1902 by which the counties Reconstpuc- 

Tj^i 1 .iiPT tion, 1916- 

and county boroughs were made responsible for educa- 1918. 

tion within their areas. The full results of the new 
policy can only be seen after the war. But an immediately bene- 
ficial result followed from the increased sums devoted by the State 
to education by which teachers' salaries were improved, staffs were 
strengthened, and schools opened, extended, and better co-ordinated. 
Such measures are but one aspect of the general problem of 
reconstruction after the war, on the right solution of which will 
depend not only the future of our education, but the necessary 
social and economic changes which are needed to improve the 
relations of capital and labour, the housing of the people, and the 
material and moral weU-being of the whole of the empire. It is 
only by a vigorous policy of reconstruction that the means can be 
found to enable the British Empire to face a future which should 
make the democracy united, happy, prosperous, serious, and free. 



^6e 



LIST OF MINISTRIES 



[1689- 



LIST OF MINISTRIES AFTER 1689 

<• 

3689-1696. Mixed Ministry of Whigs and Tories. ^ 

1696-1701. First Whig Ministry of the Junto. \ 

1701-1708. Mixed Ministries of varying character under Marlborough and 

Godolphin. ^ 

1708-1710, Whig Ministry xmder Marlborough and Godolphin. 

1710-1714. Oxford and Bolingbroke Ministry (Tory). ._» 

1714-1717. Townshend Ministry (Whig). — 

1717-1720. Stanhope Ministry (Whig) — 

1720-1742. Walpole Ministry (Whig). — 

1742 1744. Carteret Ministry (Whig). " 

1744-1754. Pelham's or the Broad Bottom Ministry (Whig). ^ 

1754-1756. Newcastle Ministry (Whig). - 

1756-1757. Devonshire Ministry (Whig).' 

1757-1761. Pitt-Newcastle Ministry (Whig)." 

1761-1763. Bute Ministry (Whigs and Tories).' 

1763-1765. Grenville Ministry (mainly Whig). 

1765-1766. First Rockingham Ministry (the Whig houses). '^ 

1766-1768. Chatham Ministry (no definite party colour). ^ 

1768-1770. Grafton Ministry (no definite party colour). 

1770-1782. North Ministry (Tory). 

1782. Second Rockingham Ministry (Whig). - - 

1782-1783. Shelbume Ministry (King's Friends and Chathamites). ^-^^ 

1783. Coalition Ministry of North and Fox (Whigs and Tories). "^ "* 
1783-1801. First Pitt Ministry (Chathamites and King's Friends, and 

gradually becoming Tory). 

1801-1804. Addington Ministry (Tory). 

1804-1806. Pitt's Second Ministry (Tory). 

1806-1807. Ministry of All the Talents (Whigs with some Tories)? 

1807-1809. Portland Ministry (Tory). - 

1809-1812. Perceval Ministry (Tory). 

1812-1827. Liverpool Ministry (Tory, becoming wider after 1822). 

1827. Canning Ministry (Liberal Tory). 

1827. Goderich Ministry (Liberal Tory). 

1828-1830. Wellington- Peel Ministry (Tory). 

1830-1834. Grey Ministry (Whig). 

1834. First Melbourne Ministry (Whig). 

1834-1835. First Peel Ministry (Conservative). 

1835-1841. Melbourne Ministry (Whig). 

1841-1846. Second Peel Ministry (Conservative). 

1846-1852. Lord J. Russell's Ministry (Whig). 

1852. First Derby-Disraeli Ministry (Protectionist and Con- 
servative). 



■igiS] 



LIST OF MINISTRIES 



767 



1852-1855. Aberdeen Coalition Ministry (Peelites and Whigs). 

1855-1858. First Palmerston Ministry (Whig). 

1858-1859. Second Derby-Disraeli Ministry (Conservative). 

185^1865. Second Palmerston Ministry (Whigs and Peelites, Liberals). 

1865-1866. Earl Russell's Ministry (Liberal). 

1866-1868. Third Derby-Disraeli Ministry (Conservative). 

1868-1874. First Gladstone Ministry (Liberal). 

1874-1880. Disraeli Ministry (Conservative). 

1880-1885. Second Gladstone Ministry (Liberal). 

1885-1886. Salisbury Ministry (Conserv^ative). 

1886. Third Gladstone Ministry (Liberal). 

1886-1892. Salisbury Unionist Ministry (Conservative and Liberal 

Unionist) . 

1892-1894. Fourth Gladstone Ministry (Liberal). 

1894-1895. Rosebery Ministrj^ (Liberal). 

1895-1902. Salisbury Ministry (Unionist) . 

I902-1905. Balfour Ministry (Unionist) . 

1905-1908. Campbell-Bannerman Ministry (Liberal)t 

1908-1915. Asquith Ministry (Liberal). 

1915-1916. Asquith Ministry (National). 

1916-1918. Lloyd George Ministry (Coalition). 



INDEX 



Aachbx, treaty of (1748), 559. 

Abbeville, 265, 292. 

Abbot, George, archbishop of Canterbury, 

427, 430, 441. 
Abdur, Rahman, amir of Afghanistan, 716. 
Aberdeen, Lord, Prime Minister, 660, 664, 

667, 669, 671. 
Aberdeen, university of, 307. 
Abernethy, 93. 
Abhorrers, the, 486. 
Aboukir Bay, 600. 

Absolom and Achitophel, Dryden's, 532. 
Acadie, 518, 564. .See also Nova Scotia. 
Acre, 133. 
Act of Union, of 1707, the, 523. 

of 1801, 605. 

Addington, prime minister, 602, 608, 610, 

612. See also Sidmouth, Lord. 
Addison, Joseph, 531. 542, 637, 
Adela, daughter of William i.. 111. 
Adelaide, of Louvain, queen of Stephen, 108. 

queen of William iv., 657, 724. 

town of, 724. 

Adriauople, 746. 

Adriatic, the, 761. 

AduUamites, the, 675. 

Adwalton Moor, battle oi, 451. 

^gean, the, 746, 753. 

JEUgax, E. of Mercia, 65. 

^Ifheah, archbishop of Canterbury, 58. 

iEUe, Saxon chieftain, 18. 

Aeroplanes, 756. 

-^thelfrith, K. of Bernicia, 21. 27, 30. 

Afghanistan, 650, 632, 711-712. 

Afghan War, the first, 711-712 ; the second, 

716. 
Africa, 423, 478, 720, 755. 
South, 683, 691, 724-727, 729, 730, 735, 

740, 741, 755. 

West, 393, 394. 

Afridis, tribe of the, 716. 

Agadir, 745. 

Age of Reason, the, 632. 

Agincourt, battle of, 265-266. 

Agrarian revolution, the, 630. 

Agricola, Julius, in Britain, 9. 

Aidan, bishop of Northumbria, 32. 

Aiguilloo, battle of, 216. 

Aire, the river, 628. 

Aislabie, chancellor of the exchequer, 545. 

Aisne, the river, 748, 750, 760, 761. 

Alibar Khan, Afghan leader, 712. 

Akeman Street, the, II. 

Alabama, the, privateering cruiser, 672, 678. 

Alaric, the Goih, 14. 



Alban, St., Christian Martyr, 12. 

Albania, 747, 762. 
Alberoni, Cardinal, 543. 

Albert, D. of Saxony-Coburg Grotha, consort 
of Queen Victoria, 657, 658, 666, 673, 695. 

Albert, King of the Belgians, 762. 

Albert, on the Ancre, 760. 

Albigenses, the, 163. 

Alcuin, of York, 35. 

Alderinen, royal officers, 78. See also Earls. 

Aleppo, 761. 

Alexander iir., pope, 120. 

■ in., K. of Scots, 185-187. 

I., tsar of Russia, 601, 607, 614. 

Alfred the Great, 43-49 

Alien Act, the, 597. 

AUectus, his rule over Britain, 12. 

Alleghanies, the, 587. 

Allen, William, Cardinal, 386, 397, 398. 

AUenby, general, 759, 761. 

All the Talents, Ministry of, 612-613. 

Alma, battle of the, 669. 

Almanza, battle of, 515. 

Alnwick, 125, 127 ; battle of, 99. 

Alphege, St., archbishop of Canterbury, 58. 

Alps, the, 596. . 

Alsace, 678. 

Althorp, Lord, leader of the Cocimons, 651. 

Alva, the duke of, 386. 

Amboyna, 424. 

Amending Bill, the, 744. 

America, 325, 392-394, 396. 401, 423, 519, 
635, 645, 692, 759, 760, 762. See also 
United States, the. 

North, 478-480, 564, 569, 577-584, 720. 

South, 396, 431, 520, 644-645. 

Amherst, general, 568, 569. 

Lord, 711. 

Amiens, 189, 265, 292, 760-761. 

cathedral of, 245. 

Mise of, 171. 

treaty of (1279), 189, 

treaty of (1802), 602, 607-608. 

Anabaptists, the, 365. See also Baptists. 

Aners, the, 750 ; battle of the, 752, 759. 

Anderida, fort of, 14, 18. See also Pevensey. 

Andrewes, Lancelot, bishop of Winchester, 
427. 

Angers, 108. 

Angles, the, their settlement in Britain, 16. 

Anglesey, 181. See also Mona. 

Angus, E. of, 380. 

Aiyou, 108, 125, 116, 126. 139, 169, 277. 

, Francis, D. of, 391. See also Mar- 
garet of. 

769 



770 



INDEX 



Annan, 209. 

Anne, of Bohemia, queen of Richard ii., 233, 
234. 

queen, daughter of James ii., 495, 

504; reign of, 511-523. See also Boleyn, 
Anne ; Cleves, Anne of; Neville, Anne ; 
and Hyde, A.nne. 
Anselm, St., archbishop of Canterbury, 97- 

99, 103, 117, 119. 
Anson, Captain, 559, 566. 
Anti-Corn Law League, the, 662. 
Antoninus Pius, emperor, the wall of, 10. 
Antrim, 402. 

Antwerp, 392, 609, 618, 750. 
Aosta, 97. 

Apprentices, Act of (1563), 412. 
AquoB Sulis, 11. See also Bath. 
Aquitaine, 203, 206, 219, 221, 271 : Eleanor 
of, queen, 115, 126. See Eleanor. 

Richard, duke of, 127. See Richard i. 

Edward, prince of, 219. See Edward 

the Black Prince. 
Arabi Pasha, 683. 
Arcot, siege of, 563. 
Archers, 70, 215, 249, 303. 
Architecture, 153, 245-247, 302-303, 529, 

636, 701-705. 
Argaum, battle of. 609, 710. 
Argonne, the, 762. 
Argyll, house of, 502. 

■ Archibald Campbell, E. of, 444, 447, 

457, 464, 465, 476. 

E. of (son of above), 487, 490. 

D. of. Whig lord, 521, 540-541. 

Arkwright, inventions of, 627. 
Arlington, Henry Bennet, Lord, 482-484. 
Armada, the, 398-399. 
Armagnacs, the. 259, 260,267, 271. 
Armed Neutrality, the, of 1780, 583. 

of 1801, 601. 

Armenia, 691, 746, 754. 

Armenians, the, 746, 754. 

Armentieres, 750. 

Arminians, the, followers of Arminius, 427, 

430, 439, 633. 
Arminius, 427. 
Armistice, The (1918), 763. 
Arms and armour, 152, 248, 303. 
Army, the, 48, 60, 78, 85, 148, 248-249, 411, 
458, 467, 497, 677-678, 696-697, 645, 748, 
757, 758. 
Arras, 750, 760. 

Congress at (1435), 276. 

Artevelde, James van, of Ghent, 211. 
Arthur, K., 28. 

of Brittany, 137, 138, 139. 

Prince of Wales, son of Henry vii., 

313, 314. 
Articuli super Cartas, 195. 
Artois, 758, 760. 

Arundel family (see also Fitzalan), 233, 
234. 235. 

lordship of, 103. 

archbishop of Canterbury, 256, 260, 

262. 
Ascham, Roger, 415. 
Ashdown, battle of, 44. 
Ashington, battle of, 59. See Assandun. 
Asquith, H. H., 735, 736,742, 743, 744, 756, 
757. 



Asia, Western, 746. 

Asiento, the, 518, 626. 

Aske, Robert, 344. 

Assam, 711. 

Assandun (Ashington), battle ef, 59. 

Assaye, battle of, 609, 710. 

Asser, bishop, biographer of Alfred the 

Great, 49. 
Assize of Clarendon, 123. 

of Northampton, 123. 

the Grand, 123. 

of Arms, 124. 

of Woodstock, or of the Forest, 124, 160. 

the Bloody, 490. 

Athelney, Alfred the Great at, 44. 

Athelstan, reign of, 51, 52. 

Atblone, capture of, 500. 

AthoU, the Stewarts of, 556. 

Atlantic, the, 701, 702, 759, 760. 

Auberoche, battle of, 216. 

Auckland, Lord, 711. 

Audley, Lord, 282. 

Aughrim, battle of, 500. 

Augusta, mother of George iii., 572. 

Augustine, St , archbishop of Canterbury, 

mission of, 29-31. 
Aurangzeb, Mogul Emperor, 562. 
Austerlitz, battle of, 612. 
Australia, 720, 722-724, 741, 754, 755. 
Australians, the, 754, 755. 
Austria, 325, 513, 551, 552, 565, 573, 596, 

598, 600-601, 607, 612, 617, 623, 644, 660, 

666, 672, 678, 681, 688, 746, 747, 752, 753- 

754. 759, 761. 762. 
Austrian Succession, war of the, 652-659. 
Authorised Version, the, of the Bible, 426. 
Auvergne, mountains of, 126. 
Avebury, megalithic monuments at, 3. 
Avignon, residence of the Popes at, 195, 

223, 229. 
Avranchiu, the, 100. 
Aylesbury, 574. 

Azincourt, 265. See Agincourt. 
Azores, the, 400. 



Babington, Antont, 389. 

Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord St. Albans and 

Chancellor, 370, 418, 430, 433, 434, 528. 

Sir Nicholas, lord keeper, 369. 

Badajos, fortress of, 620. 

Bagdad, 754, 759. 

Balaclava, battle of, 670. 

Balance of Power, the, 326, 327, 400, 469, 

503, 520, 608, 744. 
Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, 125. 
Balfour. Arthur J., 686, 690, 730, 734, 735, 

756. 
Balkan League, the, 746. 

Peninsula, the, 680-681, 745, 746. 

Ball, John, 230, 232. 

Ballard, John, 238. 

Balliol, John, lord of Galloway, 188-189 | 

K. of Scots, 191, 192, 209. 

Edward, 209. 

Ballot Act, the, 678. 
Baltic, the, 752. 

Provinces, the, 752. 

Baltimore, Lord, 423. 
Bamburgh, castle of, 95. 



INDEX 



771 



Banbury, 289. 

Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbnry, 427. 

Bank of England, the, 504, 544, 646. 

Banuerman. See Campbell-Bannerman. 

Bannockburn, battle of, 200-201. 

Bapaume, 752. 

Baptists, the, 365, 468, 475. 

Barbados, the settlement of, 423. 

Barbour, John, his Scottish Chronicle, 252, 

307. 
Barcelona, 515. 
Barnet, battle of, 291. 
Barons' War, the, 170. 
Basra, 754. 

Bastile, the, storming of, 595, 
Batavian republic, the, 602. 
Bath, 184, 490, 527. See also Aquas Sulis. 
Battle, the abbey of, 154. 
Bavaria, 512, 513-514, 554. 

the Emperor Louis of, 211. 

Maria Antonia, electrees of, 507. 

Joseph Ferdinand, electoral prince of, 

508. 
Charles, elector of, 554. See also 

Charles vii. , emperor. 
Baylen, battle of, 616. 
Bayonne, 126, 221, 222, 278. 
Baxter, Richard, 474. 
Beachy Head, battle of, 502. 
Beaconslield, E. of, 679, 681, 682. See 

also Disraeli. 
Beatty, Admiral, 755, 758. 
Beauchamp, Thomas, E. of Warwick, 234. 

See also Warwick. 
Lord, son of Lady Catharine Grey, 

407. 
Beaufort, house of, 260, 297-298. 
John, E. of Somerset, 260. See also 

Somerset. 
Henry, bishop of ^\'inchester, 260, 

262, 272, 275, 277. 

Thomas, chancellor, 260, 697. 

Jane, wife of James i. of Scotland, 

271. 
Edmund, D. of Somerset, 277. See 

also Somerset. 

Margiret, 298. 

Beauge, battle of, 268. 
Eeaulieu, abbey of, 312. 
Beaumaris, castle of, 247. 
Beaumont, Francis, dramatist, 530. 
Bee, in Normandy, monastery of, 90, 97. 
Becket, St., Thomas, archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 117-122, 150. 
Bede, English historian, 35. 
Bedford, castle of, 161. 

John, D. of, 270-276. 

John Russell, E. of, 356. 

D. of, head of the Bloomebury Gang, 

574. 
Beersheba, 759. 
Behar, 710. 
Beirut, 761. 
Belfast, 661. 
Belgium, kingdom of, 651, 655, 748, 750, 

752, 762. 
Belleme, Robert of. See Robert. 
Benedict, of Nursia, St., 55. 
Bengal, 710, 714, 715; the nawab of, 564. 
Bengeworth, village of, 174. 



Bentinck, Lord George, 664, 

Sir William, 711. 

Berar, surrender to England of, 713. 
Berengaria of Navarre, queen of Richard i., 

132. 
Beresford, marshal, 620. 
Berkeley, 628 ; castle of, 204. 

George, philosopher, 637, 

Berlin, 614 ; congress at, 681. 

Bermudas, the, 720. 

Bernicia, 19, 27, 32, 51. 

Bertha, wife of Ethelbert of Kent, 28, 29. 

Bertrand de Born, 131. 

Berwick, on Tw^eed, 189, 209, 258, 411, 

treaty of, 445. 

near Shrewsbury, 258. 

Bhonslas, the, 713. 

Bigod, Roger, E. of Norfolk, 193. 

Bill of Rights, the, of 1689, 496. 

Birinus, Wessex converted by, 33. 

Birmingham, 630, 652, 653, 675, 683, 702, 

736. 
Biscay, Bay of, i 26. 
Bishops' War, the first, 444 ; the second. 

445. 
Bismarck, prince, 672, 688, 
Black Death, the, 216. 
Blackheath. 279, 312. 
Black Sea, the, 669, 671, 678. 
Blair AthoU, 501. 
Blake, Robert, admiral, 465, 469. 

William, poet, 638. 

Blanche, duchess of Lancaster, 225, 

Blanchetaque, 214, 264. 

Blangy, 265. 

Bleddyn, Welsh prince, 65. 

Blenheim, battle of, 513-514, 

Bloemfontein, 727. 

Blois, domains of the counts of. 111. 

Charles of, 213, 216. 

Henry of. See Henry, of Blois, bishop 

of Winchester. 

Stephen of. See Stephen, K, 

Blore Heath, battle of. 282. 

BUicher, marshal, 622. 

Boadicea. See Boudicca. 

Board of Trade, the, 696. 

Boccaccio, 251. 

Boers, the, 720, 724-727, 730, 732. 

Boer War, the, 694, 697, 724-727, 729, 730, 

755. 
Bohemia, 366, 431, 432, 554. 

Huss in, 267. 

Anne of, queen of Richard 11., 232- 

234. See Anne. 
Bohun, Humphrey, E. of Hereford, 193. 

See Hereford. 
Boleyn, Anne, queen of Henry vui., 334, 

336, 339, 345, 379. 

Sir Thomas, 334. 

Bolingbroke, viscount, 536, 549-550, See 

also St. Jobn. 
Bolsheviks, the, 753, 759. 
Bombay, 478, 562, 710, 715, 
Bonar Law, 756, 
Bond of Association, the (1684), 388. 

tbe (1696), 505. 

Boniface, English missionary in Germany, 

34. 
viir., pope, 192, 195. 



772 



INDEX 



Boniface of Savoy, archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 164. 

Bonn, 512, 

Bonner, Edmund, bishop of London, 348, 
357, 361, 364, 370. 

Bordeaux, 126, 165, 166, 217, 219, 221, 222, 
278, 748. 

Born, Bertrand de, 131. 

Boroughbridge, battle of, 202. 

Bosnia, 681, 746, 747. 

Boston, Massachusetts, 424, 580, 681. 

Bosworth, battle of, 299. 

Botha, Louis, 730, 755. 

Bothwell, James Hepburn, E. of, 381, 383. 

Both well Bridge, battle of, 487. 

Boudicca, queen of the Iceni, 8, 9. 

Boulogne, 100, 111, 114, 349, 354, 609. 

Godfrey of. See Godfrey. 

Stephen of. See Stephen, king. 

Matilda of. See Matilda, queen. 

Bourbons, the, 400, 572, 576, 612. 

Bourges, *' the king of," 271. 

Bouvines, battle of, 140. 

Boxers, Chinese rebels, 694. 

Boyne, battle of the, 499. 

" Boys," the, 549. 

Brabant, D. of, 211. 

Bradshaw, John, president of the court 
which tried Charles i., 462. 

Braganza, Catharine of. See Catharine of 
Braganza, queen. 

Bramham Moor, battle of, 259. 

Brandenburg, 502, 512, 520. See also 
Prussia. 

Branxton Hill, 323. 

Brazil, 392. 

Brecon, 100, 297. 

Breda, the declaration of, 471, 473. 

the peace of, 478. 

Brentford, 451. 

Brest, 222, 611. 

Brest-LitoTsk, treaty of, 753. 

Bretigni, treaty of, 210. 

Bridgnorth, castle of, 104. 

Bridgwater, 490. 

Francis, D. of, 628. 

Canal, 628. 

Brigantes, tribe of the, 8, 9. 

Brigham, the treaty of, 188. 

Bright, John, 662, 664, 676, 

Brighton, 636. 

Brihuesa, battle of, 516. 

Brindley, engineer, 628. 

Bristol, 114, 151, 203, 345, 393, 451, 490, 
526, 626. 

Britain, early, 1-17 ; church of, 28, 29. 

Britannia, Superior, Inferior, Prima, Se- 
cunda, 10. 

British Columbia, 723. 

British South African Company, establish- 
ment of the, 725. 

Britons, the, 4-21. 

Brittany, 298. 

Geoffrey of, 127. 

D. of, 271. 

John of, 196. 

Francis of, 310. 

Anne of, 310. 

Brittany, disputed succession to, 213, 216. 

Broad Church, the, 599. 



Broke, Captaiii, 622. 

Bronze Age, the. 3. 

Brooklyn, battle of, 582. 

Brougham, Henry, Lord, chancellor, 644, 

651. 
Brown, Robert, founder of the Brownists 

or Independents, 374. 
Browne, Sir Thomas, physician, 532. 
Browning, Robert, po-t, 706. 
Brownists, the, 374. 
Bruce, David, K. of Scots, son of King 

Robert, 205, 208-210, 216. 
Edward, brother of King Robert Bruce, 

225. 

Robert, Lord of Annandale, 188. 

E. of Carrick, grandson of the 

above, afterwards K. of Scots, 196, 200- 

202, 205, 206, 208, 225. 
Bruges, 61, 211, 763. 
Brunanburh, battle of, 52. 
Brunswick, House of, 520, 536, 728, 740. 
Brussels, 622. 

Brythons, the, 2. See Britons. 
Bucer, Martin, 357. 
Buch, the Captal de, 217. 
Buckingham, Henry Stafford, D. of, 295, 

296 2^7 
Edward Staftord, D. of, 328. 

George Yilliers, D. of, 430, 432, 433, 

434, 436, 438. 

George MUiers, D. of (son of the above), 

482, 483. 
Buckingham Palace, 744. 
Budget of 1910, the, 739. 
Budget of 1911, the, 742. 
Bulgars. See Bulgaria. 
Bulgaria, 680, 681, 746, 753, 754, 759, 761. 

762. 
Bulgarians, the, 746. See Bulgaria. 
Bulls, papal, 92. 
Bunker's Hill, battle of, 581. 
Bunyan, John, 475, 532. 
Buonaparte, Napoleon, 598-607, 744, 755. 

See also Napoleon i., emperor of the 

French. 
Joseph, K. of Spain, 612, 615, 616, 618- 

621. 

Louis Napoleon, 666. See also Na- 
poleon HI., emperor of the French. 

Burbage, James>, theatre of, 416. 

Burgh Castle, 14. See Gariannonum. 

Burgh-on-Sands, 196. 

Burgh, Hubert de, justiciar, 160, 161, 162. 

Burghley, Lord. See Cecil, Sir William. 

house, built by Sir William Cecil, 414. 

Burgoyne, general, 582. 

Burgundians, the, 259, 267, 271, 275, 288. 

Burgundy, 133, 366. 

John the Fearless, D. of, 259, 267. 

Philip the Good, D. of, 267, 271,275, 276. 

Charles the Rash, D. of, 288-292. 

Mary of, 292. 

Burke, Edmund, statesman and writer, 
575, 576, 580, 587. 591, 596, 597, 603, 

T. H., Irish under-secretary, 682, 687. 

Burma, annexation of, 713. 

Burnell, Robert, bishop of Wells and chan- 
cellor, 179, 182, 184, 185. 

Burns, John, 735. . 

Burns, Robert, 633, j 



INDEX 



775 



Burrard, Sir Harry, 616. 
Bury St. Edmunds, 231. 
Busaco, battle of, 62a. 
Bute, John, E. of, 572, 574. 
Buxton, 527. 
Bye Plot, the, 426. 
Byng, admiral, 543. 

admiral, son of the above, 566. 

Byron, George Gordon, Lord, poet, 639, 645. 



Cabal, the, 482-484. 

Cabot, John, 393. 

Sebastian. 393. 

Cade, Jack, 279. 

Cadiz, 397, 401, 436, 611. 

Cadwallon, Welsh King, 31. 

Caedmon, Anglo-Saxon poet, 35. 

Caen, 93 ; capture of, 214. 

Caerleon-on-Uek, 8. See Isca Siluram. 

Caerphilly, castle of, 248. 

Cseear, Gaius Julius, 6, 7. 

Caithness, Norse settlers in, 42. 

Calais, 222. 235, 264, 266, 291, 321, 367, 378, 
411, 750; siege of, 216; treaty of, 219. 

Calcutta, 562, 564, 710, 740. 

Calder, admiral, 611. 

the river, 628. 

Caledonian Canal, the, 628. 

Caledonians, the, 9, 10, 12. 

Calendar, reform of the, 559. 

Calvin, John, 333, 366, 372-373. 

Calvinism, 377. 

Calvinists, the, 633. 

Cambrai, 748, 758, 762. 

Cambrai, league of, 320. 

Cambridge, 244, 301, 357, 700, 708. 

Richard, E. of, 264. 

Cambuakenneth, abbey of, 194. 

Cameron s, the, 510, 540, 556. 

Campbell-fiannerman, Sir Henry, 691, 735, 
736. 

Campbells, the, 457, 501, 502, 540, See 
also Argyll. 

Campeggio, Cardinal, 335. 

Camperdowu, battle of, 599. 

Campion, Edmund, Jesuit, 388. 

Camulodunum, 7, 8. 

Canada, 564, 568, 569, 573. 577, 621, 659, 
669, 719, 722-723, 741, 755. 

Canadian Pacific Kailway, the, 723. 

Canals, 628. 

Canning, George, 613, 643, 644-647, 720. 

Lord, viceroy of India (son of the 

above), 714, 715. 

Canons Regular, the, 154. 

Canterbury, 30, 75, 117, 120, 121, 122, 125, 
140. 

archbishops of. See Augustine, Theo- 
dore, Dunstan, Alpnege, Jumieges 
William of, Stigand, Lanlranc, Anselm, 
Corbeil Willian» of. Becket St. Thomas, 
Hubert ^V alter. Laugton Stephen, Rich 
Edmund, Boniface of Savoy, Kilwardy 
Robfcrt, Peckham John, Winchelsea 
Robert, Arundel Thomas, Morton, Cran- 
mer Thomas, Pole Reginald, Parker 
Matthew, Grindal Edmund, Whitgift 
John, Bancroft, Abbot, Laud William, 
Sheldon Gilbert, Sancroft, Tillotson. ; 



Canterbury Tales, Chaucer's, 251. 
Cantreds, the four, of North Wales, 176. 
Cape Breton, island of, 565, 568, 573. 

Colony, 725, 727. See also Africa, 

South. 

of Good Hope, the, 396, 425, 623. 

Passaro, battle of, 543. 

St. Vincent, battle of, 599 

Caporetto, 758. 

Caractacus, son of Cunobelinns, 7, 8. 
Carausius, Roman admiral, 12. 
Carberry Hill, battle of, 383. 
Cardiff, castle of, 93. 
Cardigan, 181. 

Cardinal College, Oxford, 331. 
Cardwell, war minister, 677, 697. 
Carisbrook, castle of, 152, 461: 
Carlisle, 9, 99, 556. 

Carlos, Don, 552. See also Charles iii. of 
Spain, 572. 

(nineteenth century), 655. 

Carlyle, Thomas, writer, 707. 
Carmarthen, 181 ; bay of, 166, 258. 
Carnarvon, 181. See also Segontium. 
castle of, 247. 

Edward of, 182, 187. See also Ed- 
ward II. 

Carolinas, colonies of the, 478, 584. 
Caroline of Anspach, queen of George ii., 
546. 

of Brunswick, queen of George iv., 

642, 643. 

Carpathians, the, 753. 

Carrickfergus, 499. 

Carson, Sir Edward, 742, 743. 

Carteret, Sir George, founder of New Jersey, 

479. 
, Lord, prime minister, 548, 553. See 

also Granville, E. of. 
Cartwright, Thomas, Puritan leader, 373. 

inventor, 627. 

Cassivellaunus, 7. 
Castile, K. of, 129. 

civil war in, 219-221. 

Castillon, battle of. 278. 

Castlereagh, Lord, 613, 643, 645. See also 

Londonderry, E. of. 
Castles, 83, 135, 152-153, 247-248. 
Catalans, thp, 515, 516, 518. 
Cateau-Cambresis, le, 748. 

treaty of le, 378 

Catesby, Robert, 427-428. 

Catharine of Aragon, queen of Henry vin., 

313, 326, 334-340, 346. 

of Braganza, queen of Charles ii., 477. 

of France, queen of Henry v., 267, 298, 

II. tsarina of Russia, 573, 583. 591, 594. 

Howard, queen of Hen.iy viii.. 349. 

Parr, queen of Henry viii., 349. 

de' Medici, queen of Henry ii. of 

France, 379. 

Catholic Association, the, 648. 

Emancipation, 605, 648-649, 700. 

Cato Street Conspiracy, the, 643 
Cavaliers, the, 450. 
Cavendish, House of, 409. 

, Lord Frederick, 682. 684. 

, See also Hartington and Devonshire. 

Cawnpur, 114. 

Caxton, William, printer, 305-306. 



774 



INDEX 



Ceadda, Northumbrian missionary, 32, 33. 
Ceawlin, K. of Wessex, 21, 27. 
Cecil, House of, 409 

Edward, Lord Wimbledon, 436. 

Sir William, Lord Burghley, 369, 385, 

388, 405, 
Sir Eobert, E. of Salisbury, 369, 405, 

406, 426, 427, 429. See also Salisbury. 
Robert, M. of Salisbury, prime minister. 

See Salisbury. 
Cedd, St., missionary in Essex and bishop 

of London, 33. 
Celts; the, 2-4, 20, 94. 

Central Powers, the. See Austria, Ger- 
many, Turkey, Bulgaria. 
Cenulf, K. of Mercia, 38. 
Cerdic, West Saxon chief, 18. 
Cessation, the, treaty of Charles i. with the 

Irish, 452. 
Cetchwayo, Zulu King, 725. 
Ceylon, 602, 623, 710, 720. 
Chad, St., bishop of Lichfield, 32, 33. See 

also Ceadda. 
Chalgrove Field, battle of, 451. 
Chalmers, Dr. Thomas, Scotch divine, 700. 
Chalus, 135. 

Chamberlain, Austen, 734. 
Joseph, politician, 684, 686, 690, 734, 

736. 
Champagne, 273, 275, 758. 
Chancellor, Richard, navigator, 393. 

office of, 119, 147, 242, 300. 

Chancery, the Court of, 242. 

Channel Islands, the, 169. 

Charleroi, 748. 

Charles i., K. of England. 429, 430, 435-461. 

, 11., 461-465, 471-472, 473-488. 

Edward, the Young Pretender, 555-558. 

IV., K. of France, 203, 206. 

v., 218, 219, 221, 228. 

VI., 228, 259, 267, 270, 

VII., 267, 268, 271. 

VIII., 310, 311, 313. 

IX., 379, 355. 

X., 649,650. 

K. of Spain, i., 324. See Charles v., 

the Emperor. 

II., 482, 507. 

III., 572, 583. See also Carlos, 

Don. 

IV., 611, 615. 

I., the Great, emperor, 35, 37, 39. 

v., the emperor, 324-327, 332, 337, 

348, 357, 366. 

vr., emperor, 543, 551, 554. 

VII. of Bavaria, emperor, 554-555. 

of Anjou, K. of Sicily, 169. 

the archduke, 508, 515, 516, 518. See 

also Charles vi., emperor. 

xii., K. of Sweden, 543. 

Charlestown, 479. 

Charlotte, princess, daughter of George iv., 

042. 
Charterhouse, monks of the, London, 341. 
Chartists, the, 659, 662, 666. 
Chateau Gaillard, 135, 139, 153, 247. 
Chatham, town of, 478. 

Countess of, 572. 

, E. of, 576, 577, 578, 580-583. See 

also Pitt, William, the elder. 



Chatham, the second E. of, 618. 

Chaucer, Geoffrey, 251, 252, 306-307. 

Cherbourg, 222. 

Chesapeake, the American ship, 622. 

Cheshire, 240, 409. 

Chester, 8, 21, 27, 54, 75, 90, 114, 236, 304, 

345. See also Deva. 

battle of, 21. 

palatine earldom of, 87, 167, 170, 182, 

351. 
Chichester, lordship of, 103. ^ 

Sir Arthur, 422. 

Children's Act, the (1908), 737. 

Chile, 755. 

Chilidnw^la, battle of, 713. 

China, 393, 396, 671, 693, 730, 755. 

Chlnon, 272, 273. 

Chivalry, 249. 

Christ Church, Oxford, 336. 

Canterbury, 121, 140-141, See 

also Canterbury. 
Christian iv., K. of Denmark, 436, 437. 
Christian Year, Keble's, 698. 
Church, the, especially the English, 29-35 „ 

49, 54-55, 79-80, 90-92, 112, 140-143. 242, 

300, 329-333, 468, 698, 700, 731. 
the Scotch. 12, 28-29, 32-34, 375-376, 

421, 443-444, 459-460, 476, 523, 634, 661, 

700, 701. 
Church, Disestablishment of the Welsh, 

742-743, 744. 

of the Irish, 650, 676, 700. 

Churchill, John, Lord, afterwards D. of 

Marlborough, 490, 495, 504, 511-517. 

Lord Randolph, 736. 

Winston, 736. 

Cinque Ports, the, 151. 

Cintra, the convention of, 616. 

Circars, the, 710. 

Circumspecte Agatis, law called, 184. 

Cistercians, order of *he, 153, 154. 

Ciudad Rodrigo, fortress, 620. 

Clare, Richard of, E. of Gloucester, 169-170, 

See also Gloucester, E. of. 
Gilbert of, E. of Gloucester, son of 

above, 170, 174, 176. /See aZso Gloucester, 

E. of. 
E. of Gloucester, son of above, 199, 201. 

See also Gloucester, E. of. 

Lord. See Fitzgibbon. 

election for the county of, 648, 649. 

Clarence, John, D. of, 268. 

Lionel, D. of, 28G. 

George, D. of, 287, 288, 290, 292, 293. 

William, D. of, 643. See also William 

TV. 

Clarendon, Constitutions of, 119. 

Code, the, 475. 

Earl of. See also Hyde, Edward, 

Clarkson, Thomas, anti-slavery agitator, 

635. 
Claudius, emperor, conquest of Britain in 

the reign of, 8. 
Clement, the anti-pope, 9S. 

v., pope, 195. 

Vii., pope, 229, 327, 332, 335, 337. 

CUricis Laicos, bull, 192. 

Clerkenwell prison, the, 676. 

Cleves, Anne of, qaeen of Henry vm., 347» 

Clifford, house of, 286. 



INDEX 



77S 



ClifiFord, Lord, of Chudleigh, 482-484. 

Clitheroe, 287. 

Clive, Robert, 563-564, 566, 708-709. 

Cloth of Gold, field of the, 326. 

Cluny, teaching of the monks of, 91. 

Clwyd, the vale of, 65, 176. 

Cout, K. of England and Denmark, 59-60 ; 

earldoms of, 60, 78. 
Coalition Ministry (1783), the, 587-589 

(1852), the. 667-668. 

the Lloyd George (1916), 757-758. 

Cobdea, Richard, politician, 662, 664, 671, 

673. 
Cobham, Eleanor, wife of Humphrey of 

Gloucester, 276. 

Lord, 426. ^e also Oldcastle, Sir John. 

Coburg, 658, 728-729, 

Cock, the river, 287. 

Cod, Cape, 424. 

Colchester, capture of, 461. See also 

Camulodunum. 
Coldstream, 322. 

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, poet, 638. 
Colftt, John, Dean of St. Paul's, 330, 331. 
Collier, Jeremy, his attack on the stage, 531. 
Colman, Scottish bishop, 33. 
Cologne, elector of, 512. 
Colonial Federation, 722, 764. 
Colonies, the British, 401, 423-424, 479-480, 
. 506, 518, 523, 562, 564-569, 577-581, 615, 

623, 659, 719-727, 729, 730, 741, 755, 761. 

German, 755. 

Columba, St., 24, 29. 
Columbus, Christopher, 307, 392. 
Combination Law.s, repeal of, 703. 
Common Pleas, the Court of, 241. 
Commons, House of, 173, 191, 202, 240, 

256, 406-407, 408, 438-440, 445, 446, 462, 

476, 486, 489, 505-506, 537. 541, 560, 651, 

675, 679, 682, 684, 741, 742, 764. 
Commonwealth, the, 462-472. 

of Australia, the, 724. 

Comorin, Cape, 710. 
Compiegne, 275, 760. 
Compulsory military service, 757. 
Comyn, John, of Badeuoch, 196. 
Concordat of iS'apoleou and the Pope, 607. 
Confirmatio Cartarum, the, 193. 
Conisborough, castle of, 152. 
Connaught, 500. 

Duke of, 740, 

Conscription, 757. 

Irish, 763. 

Conservatives, the, 655, 656, 660, 664, 667, 

671, 675, 679, 684, 686, 690. 
Con&iliuin Ordinarium, the, 241. 
Conspiracy to Murder Bill, the, 671. 
Constable, John, painter, 705. 

oflBce of, 147. 

Constance of Castile, wife of John of Gaunt, 

232. 

council of, 266. 

Constantino, the first Christian emperor, 12. 

king of Greece, 752, 759. 

Constantinople, 29, 680, 681, 746. 
Continental system. Napoleon's, 614. 
Conventicle Act, the, 475. 
Convention, the Irish (1916), 763. 

Parliament (1660), 471-474. 

(1688), 495-497. 



Convocation, 239. 

Conway, the treaty of, 179; castle of, 247. 

Cook, captain, 720. 

Co-operation, 703. 

Coote, colonel Sir Eyre, 564, 585. 

Cope, general, 556. 

Copenhagen, battle of, 601. 

Corbeil, William of, archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 111. 

Corea, 733. 

Cork, 125, 661. 

Corn Laws, the, 631, 662, 663-664. 

Cornwall, 3, 14, 77, 312, 451. 

Richard, E. of, 166. 

Gaveston made E. of, 199. 

Cornwallis, Lord, 584, 604. 

Corporation Act, the, 475, 543, 547, 648, 699. 

Corufia, battle of, 617. 

Cotentin, the, sold by Robert of Normandy, 
100, 103. 

Edward in. lands in, 214. 

Counter-Reformation, the, 377. 

County Councils, 696. 

Courtenay, bishop, of London, 227. 

Henry, Marquis of Exeter, 346. 

Covenant, the Scottish National, 444. 

■ the Solemn League, and, 452-453. 

of Ulster Protestants, 743. 

Covenanters, the, 476, 487, 490. 

Coventry, Parliament at, 282. 

Cowper, William, poet, 634, 638. 

Cravant, battle of, 271. 

Crabbe, George, poet, 638. 

Cranborne, Lord, 675. See also Salisbury, 
Robert, marquis of. 

Craumer, Thomas, archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 339, 345-349, 354, 355, 357, 361, 
364-365. 

Crecy, battle of, 214-215. 

Crete, 691. 

Crimea, the, 669-671. 

Croatia, 746. 

Cromer, Lord, in Egypt, 692. 

Crompton, inventions of, 627. 

Cromwell, Oliver, Protector, 452, 453, 456, 
468, 460-470. 

Kichard, Protector, 470. 

Thomas, E. of Essex, 341-347. 

Crusade, the First, 100,101 ; the third, 131- 
133. 

CuUoden Moor, battle of, 558. 

Cumberland. 21, 52, 99, 541, 556. 

Ernest, D. of, 657. 

William, D. of, 555, 558, 566. 

Cumbria, the northern division of the 
Welsh, 21. 

Cunobelinus, 7. 

Customs, the, 183. 

Curia Regis, the, 107, 117, 147. 

Cynric, son of Cerdic, Saxon chief, 1 3. 

Cyprus, 681. 

Dalhousie, M. of, governor-general of 

India, 713. 
Dalmatia, 762. 

Dalrymple, John, the Master of Stair, 502. 
Damascus, 7 til. 
Danby, Thomas Osborne, E. of, 484-436, 

489, 494, 505. See also Leeds, D. of. 
Danegeld, levy of» 53. 



77^ 



INDEX 



Danelaw, the, 45, 46, 50, 74, 

Danes, the, 40-48, 50-52, 57-58, 80, 84, 125, 

672. 
Daniel, first bishop of Bangor, 28. 
Dante, 251. 
Danuhe, the, 513, 669. 
Dardanelles, the, 669, 753, 754. 
Darien Scheme, the, 506, 521. 
Darlington, 702. 
Darnell, the case of, 437, 447. 
Damley, Henry Stewart, E. of, 380-381. 
Darwin, Charles, naturalist, 705. 
David, Saint, 28. 

I., K. of Scots, 106, 112. 

II., K. of Scots, 205, 208-210, 216. S&e, 

also Bruce, David. 

ap Griffith, prince of Wales, 180, 181. 

E. of Huntingdon, 188. 

Davison, Secretary of State, 389. 
Deccan, the nizam of the, 710. 
Declaration of Indulgence, the (1673), 484, 

(1688), 494. 

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 

Gibbon's, 638. 
Defoe, Daniel, writer, 637. 
Deira, 19, 30, 51. 
Deists, the, 632. 
Delaware, the river, 479. 
Delhi, 562, 609, 710, 714, 715, 741. 
Demerara, 720. 
Denmark, 60, 672. 
Deorham, battle of, 21. 
Deptford, 396. 

De Quincey, Thomas, writer, 706. 
Derby, 50, 556; earldom of, 175. 
Edmund of Lancaster, E, of, 175. See 

also Edmund of Lancaster. 
Henry of Lancaster, E, of, 225, 234, 

235. See also Henry iv. 
Stanley, Thomas, first E, of, 311, See 

also Stanley. 
Stanley, Edward, E. of, Prime Minister 

under queen Victoria, 667, 675 
Dermot, K. of Leinster, 125. 
Derry, siege of, 499. 
Desmond, earl of, 402. 
Despensers, the, father and son, 202, 203. 
Dettingen, battle of, 554. 
Deva, Koman garrison at, 8, 11. See also 

Chester. 
Devon, county of, 451. 
— ■■ — Commission, the, 661. 
Devonshire, E, of, 494. 
D. of, prime minister under George 

II. , 561. 
D. of, minister under Victoria, 690, 

731. See also Hartington. 
Devolution in Ireland, 737. 
Dickens, Charles, 706. 
Diocletian, the Emperor, 10, 12. 
Dillon, John, 763. 
Directory, the, 598, 600. 
Disestablishment of Welsh Church, 742, 

743, 744. 

of Irish Church, 650, 676. 

Disraeli, Benjamin, 663, 664, 667, 671, 674, 

675, 676, 679. See also Beaconsfield. 
Dissenters, the, 493, 494, 497, 516, 547, 699. 
Doab, the Upper and Lower, 710. 
Dcmesday Book, the, 89. 



Dominic, St., 243. 

Dominica, battle near, 584. 

Dominicans, the, 167, 243. 

Dominion of Canada, the 723, 741, 764. 

Dominions, the, 719-728, 741, 764, 

Domremi, 273. 

Doncaster, 343, 

Dorchester, bishops of, 90, 

Dordogne, the river, 126, 278. 

Dorset, Thomas Grey, Marquis of, 320. 

Dost Muhammad, Amir of Afghanistan, 

712. 
Douai, 763. 

college at, 387. 

Douglas, E. of, 258. 

Dover, 142, 151, 398. See also Dubrae. 

treaty of, 482, 483. 

Dovey, the river, 166. 

Drake, Sir Francis, sailor, 396, 398, 400. 

Dreadnoughts, the, 755. 

Drogheda, capture of, 463. 

Druids, the, 4. 

Drumalban, 22, 24. 

Dryden, John, poet, 531, 532. 

Dual Alliance, the, 688, 744. 

Dublin,U25, 126, 309, 499, 609. 

Eebellion, the, 757. 

Dubrae, 11. See Dover. 

Dudley, Edmund, extortioner, d. 1510... 

314, 318. 
John, E. of Warwick, 354, 357, and 

D. of Northumberland, 358-361. 
Lord Guildford, 360, 362. 

Lord Robert, 370. See also Leicester, 

E. of. 
Dumfries, 196. 

Dunajec, the battle on the, 753. 

Dudbar, battle of. 464. 

Dunblane, 541. 

Duncan, admiral, 599. 

Dunchurch, 427. 

Dundee, Viscount, 501. See Graham, John. 

Dunes, battle of the, 459. 

Dungannon, meeting of Irish at, 586. 

Dunkirk, 469, 477. 

Duns Scotus, schoolman, 245. 

Dunstable, 339. 

Dunstan, St., abbot of Glastonbury and 

archbishop of Canterbury, 53-56. 
Dupleix, governor of Pondicherri, 563. 
Dupplin Moor, battle of, 209. 
Duquesne, Fort, 565, 568. 
Durbar, the, 741. 
Durham, 87. 90, 240, 702, 736. 

cathedral of, 153. 

— - Lord, 723. 

Dutch, the, 424, 465, 468, 478, 482-484, 503, 

513, 518, 524, 559, 598, 623, 720, 724. 

Republic, foundation of the, 386. 

Dyvrig, St., bishop of Llandaff, 28. 



Ealdgtth, daughter of JElfgar, 65. 
Earldoms, of Cnut, 60; of William i„ 86- 

87 ; of Norman times, 148. 
EastAnglia,19,27,28, 33,40,43, 51, 60, 77, 90. 
Easter lings, the, 302. 
East India Company, the, 424, 478, 588, 

591, 711, 715. 
Ebrt), the river, 617. 



INDEX 



l-irjii 
/// 



Eburacum, 9, 11, 12. Sfee York. 
Ecclesiastical Coniinissiou, the Court of 
372, 442, 446. 

of James ir., 493. 

of 1836, 699. 

Ecgfiith, K. of Nortbumbria, 35. 
Edgar, tbe Peaceful, Kiug, 53-55. 
Edgar the iEtheliug, 66, 71, 84, 101, lOt. 

K. of Scots, 103. 

Edgecote, battle of, 289. 
Edge Hill, battle of, 450, 
Edinburgh, 54, 125, 306, 354, 381, 383, 443, 
500, 550-551, 556, 623. 

treaty of, 375. 

Ediugton, battle of, 44. 
Edith, sister of Athelstau, 52. 

wife of Edward the Confessor, 62, 64. 

( Matilda) of Scotland.queen of Henry i., 

103. Ste also Matilda. 
Edmund, the Magnificent, King, 52. 

Ironside, King, 59. 

son of Henry iii., E. of Lancaster, 167, 

175, 179, 189. 

— E. of Kent, son of Edward i., 208. 
Edred, King, 52, 53. 
Education Act, the, of 1870, 677, 707. 

of 1902, 708, 730. 

Act of 1918, 762-3. 

Bills under Edward vir., 730, 731, 

736, 737. 
Edward the Elder, King, 50-51. 

the Martyr, King, 55-56. 

the Confessor, King, 61-62, 153, 179. 

I., 169, 170, 172-176, 178-197, 247. 

II., 182, 187, 198-204, 240. 

III., 203, 204, 205-227, 249. 

IV., 285-294. 

v., 295, 296, 

VI., 346, 352-360. 

VII., 694. 728-739. 

Edward the Black Prince, 214-222. 

prince ot Wales, son of Henry vi., 280, 

289,291. 
Edwin, K. of Northumbria, 30-31. 

E. of Mercia, 65, 68, 69, 71, 84, 85. 

Edwy, King, 53. 

Egbert, bishop of York, 35. 

K. of Wessex, 39-40. 

Egypt, 599, 600, 660, 68 J, 683, 632-693, 732, 

746, 753, 759. 
Eikon Basilike, 463. 
Eikonoklastes, 463. 
Elba, Isle of, 621,622. 
Eleanor, of Aquitaine, queen of Henry ii., 
115, 126, 127, 137, 138, 139. 

of Castile, queen of Edward i., 189. 

of Provence, queen of Henry iii., 162, 

173. 
princess of Wales, 179. See also Mont- 
fort, Eleanor. 
Eliot, Sir John, pailiamentary leader, 436, 

437-439. 
Elizabeth, queen, 340, 346, 359, 362, 368- 
407. 

queen of Bohemia.daughter of James i. , 

427, 432. 

Woodville, queen of Edward iv., 296. 

of Y'"ork, queen of Henry vir., 297, 308. 

tsarioa of Russia, 565. 

Ellandune, battle of, 40. 



Elphinstone, general, 712. 

Eltham, 263. 

Ely, island of, 84, 176. 

monastery of, 153. 

Nigel, bishop of, 112, 117. 

Emma, of Normandy, wife of Ethelred ii 

58. 59. ' 

Emmet, Robert, Irish rebel, 609 
Empress of India, title of. 715. 
Erapson, Richard, extortioner, 314, 313 
Enclosure Acts, the, 631. 
Endowed Schools Acts, the, 707. 
England, the beginnings of, 17.' 

united under one king, 51. 

English, the, characteristics of their settle- 

ment, 20. 
Entail, Law of, 184, 185. 
Entente cordiale, the, 732, 745 
Enniskillen, 499. 
Equity, the Court of, 242. See Chancerv 

Court of. ^' 

Erasmus, writer, 330. 
Ermine Street, tbe, 11. 
Essex, Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of 19 2? 

28, 30, 33. . ^, ^<, 

shire, of, 77, 461. 

Geoffrey, Fitzpeter, E. of. See Fitz- 

peter. 

Robert Devereux, second E. of 40 j 

404, 405. • "^' 

Robert Devereux, parliamentary 

general, third E. of, 450, 451, 456, 457, 458 

^\ alter Devereux, first E. of, 402* 

Etaples, treaty of, 3lo. 

Ethelbald. K. of Mercia, 36. 

K. of AVessex, 43. 

Ethelbert, K. of Kent, 28-30,43. 

Ethelburga, of Kent, wife of Edwin of 
Northumbria, 30. 

Ethelflaed, the Lady of the Mercians, 45 50 

Ethelred, K. of Wessex, 43. ' " 

alderman of the Mercians, 45, 50 

II., 56-59. 

Ethelwulf, K. of AVessex, il-43, 

Eton, 301. 

Eugene, prince, of Savoy, 513, 515. 

Eustace, son of King Stephen, 115. 

Evangelical movement, the, 633-634 698. 

Evangelicals, tbe, 698. ' 

Evesham, battle of, 174-175. 

Evolution, doctrine of, 705-706. . 

Exchequer, the, 107, 117, 147, 211. 

the stop of the, 483. 

Exclusion Bill, the, 486-487. 

Excise, Walpole's, 550. 

Exeter, 11, 83, 151, 312, 495. See also Isca 
Dumnoniorum. 

cathedral of, 247. 



Factort Acts, the, 703. 

system, the, 630. 

Faerie Quean, Spenser's, 416. 

Fairfax, Lord, parliamentary general, 451, 

453. 
Sir Thomas, parliamentary general, 

son of the^above, 451, 453, 458,461, 464. 
Falaise, treaty of, 125. 
FaUes of Breaute, foreign adventurer, 161. 
Falkirk, battle of (1298), 194. 



77^ 



INDEX 



Falkirk, battle of (1'746). 558. 

Falkland, Lucius Gary, Viscount, 447, 448, 

452. 
Family Compact, tbe, 572. 
Farnese, Elizabeth, queen of Spain, 551. 
Faroe islands, ]^orse settlers in, 42. 
Fashoda, 693. 

Fawkes, Guy, conspirator, 427-428. 
Felix, a Burguodian, East Anglia converted 

bv, 33. 
Felton, the murderer of Buckingham, 438. 
Fenians, tbe, 675. 

Ferdinand, K. of Aragon, 310, 313, 319, 320, 
324. 

1., emperor, 366. 

II., emperor, 431. 

the Infant of Spain, 615. 

Fere, La (town), 762. 

Ferrar. bishop of St. David's, 364. 

Feudalism, 85-86, 96. 

Feversham, E. of, 490. 

Fielding, Henry, novelist, 638. 

Fife, 541, 

Finisterre, cape, battle of, 611. 

Finland, 614. 

Fire, the Great, of London, 481. 

Fisher, Herbert, Minister of Education, 

764-5. 
Fisher, John, Bishop of Eochester, 340, 341. 
Fishguard, 599. 
Fitzalan, Richard, E. of Arundel, 233, 234. 

Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, 

called archbishop Arundel, 235, 236, 256. 
Fitzgerald, house of, 309, 311, 350, 402. 
Ste, also Desmond, E. of, and Kildare, E. 
of. 

Vesey, 648. 

Fitzgibbon, Lord Clare, 604, 605. 
Fitzosbero, William, Norman baron, 83. 
Fitzpeter, Geoffrey, E. of Essex, 135, 138, 
144. 

Fitzwilliam, Lord, 603, 604. 

Five Articles of Perth, the, 421. 

Five-Mile Act, the, 475. 

Flambard, Ranulf, justiciar, 96, 102, 103. 

Flamborough Head, 259. 

Flamboyant, Gothic, 306. 

Flammock, Cornish leader, 312. 

Flanders, 193, 216, 2I9, 305, 310, 312, 397, 
750, 758, 760, 762, 763. 

Flavia Ccesariensis, 10. 

Flaxman, John, sculptor, 636. 

Fleet, the Grand, 757, 758. 

Fleetwood, general, 470. 

Flemings, the, 106, 116. 

Fletcher, Andrew, of Salton, 522. 

John, dramatist, 530. 

Fleury, Cardinal, 551. 

Flodden, battle of, 322-323. 

Flint, surrender of Eicliard 11. at, 237. 

Flintshire, 182. 

Florida, 564, 573, 587. 

Flying Squadron, the. 522. 

Foch, Marshal, 760, 761, 763. 

Fontenoy, battle of, 555. 

Ford, John, dramatist, 530. 

Forest Charter, of Henry 111., 160. 

Forster, Thomas, Jacobite leader, 539, 541. 

W. E., politician, 677, 707. 

Fort St. George, 562. 



Fort William (India), 562, 564. 

(Scotland), 628. 

Forty-two Articles, the, 359. 

Fosse Way, the, 11. 

Fotheringhay, castle of, 389. 

Fountains abbey, 153. 

Fox, Richard, bishop of Winchester, 314, 

318. 

Henry, lord Holland, 560, 573, 577. 

Charles James, 577, 586, 587-589, 596, 

597, 610, 612-613. 
France, 115, 119, 120, 126, 189-191,258,433, 

436, 440, 469, 482, 502, 503, 508, 512, 542, 

543, 551, 552, 555, 559, 562-566, 572, 587, 

591, 593-602. 615, 621-623, 660, 666, 669, 

678, 6-51, 693, 732, 734, 744, 745, 747-752, 

757, 758, 760, 762, 763. 
Francis i., of France, 324, 325-327, 337, 357. 

II., of France, 378. 

St., of Assisi, 243. 

of Lorraine, afterwards the emperor 

Francis i., 554, 555. 
Francis Ferdinand, archduke of Austria, 

747. 
Franciscans, the, 167, 243-244. 
Franco-German War, the, 678. 
Frankfort, 666. 
Franks, the, their settlement in northern 

Gaul, 14. 
Fraser Clan, the, 540. 
Frederick i., Barbarossa, emperor, 120, 131. 

If., emperor. 164. 

prince of Wales, son of George ji., 

549. 

D. of York, son of George iii. , 598. 

elector, palatine, and K. of Bohemia, 

431, 433, 436, 440. 

I., K. of Prussia, 512. 

II., the Great, K. of Prussia, 554, 565, 

568, 573, 583. 
Free Church, the, of Scotland, 661, 700. 
Free Companies, the, 219. 
French, Marshal, 744, 748, 750, 760. 
French literature in England, 156, 250. 

Revolution, the, 593-600. 

Friars, the, 242-244. 

Friedland, battle of, 614. 

Friends, the society of, 468, 479. 

Frobisher, Marrin, navigator, 396, 398, 

Froissart, John, 251. 

Fuentes de Onoro, battle of, 620. 

Fulford, battle of, 68 

Fyrd, the, military levy of the shire, 78. 



Gaekwak, the, 710. 

Gage, general, 581. 

Galgacus, Caledonian chieftain, 9. 

Galicia, 752. 

Galloway, 14, 22, 209. 

Galway, 661. 

Ganges, the, 710. 

Gardiner, Stephen, bishop of Winchester, 

348, 357, 361, 362, 366, 370. 
Gariannonum, fort of, 14. See Burgh 

Castle. 
Garnett, Henry, a Jesuit, 428. 
Garonne, the river, 217. 
Garrick, David, actor, 637. 
Garter, the Order of the, 2l7. 



INDEX 



779 



Gascony, 126, 166, 167, 169, 179, 185, 189, 

190, 192-194, 206, 222, 278, 280, 320. 
Gates, American general, 582. 
Gatton, in Surrey, 636. 
Gauls, the, 5. 
Gaunt, John of, D. of Lancaster, 222, 225- 

232, 234-236. 

Gaveston, Peter of, E. of Cornwall, 198-199. 

Gaza, 759. 

Geneva, 372, 375. 

Geoflrey Plantagenet, count of Anjou, 108. 

count of Brittany, eon of Henry ii., 

. 127. 

of Monmouth, wrote History of 

Britain, 106, 107, 155, 156. 

George i., 520, 521, 536-545. 

II., 542, 546-569. 

III., 570-625, 740. 

IV., 588, 642-649. 

v., 739-765. 

of Denmark, husband of Q. Anne, 511, 

David Lloyd. See Lloyd George. 

Georgia, colony of, 564, 584, 633. 

Gerberoy, battle of, 88. 

Germany, 16, 431, 596, 607, 612, 617, 621, 

666, 672, 678, 688, 692, 732, 734, 744- 

763. 
Ghent, 211. 

the pacification of, 386. 

Treaty of, 622. 

Gibbon, Edmund, historian. 638. 
Gibbons, Grinling, Dutch woodcarver, 530. 
Gibraltar, 515, 518, 584, 587. 
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, navigator, 401, 

423. 
Gildas, Welsh monk, his description of 

Britain, 21. 
Ginkel, general, 500. 
Gladstone, William Ewart, prime minister, 

664, 668, 673, 674, 676-679, 682, 684-685, 

689. 
Glamorgan, lordship of, 100, 106, 174. 
Glasgow, 626, 628, 630, 675, 683. 

General Assembly at, 444. 

university of, 307. 

Glastonbury, abbey, 54. 

lake villages discovered near, 4. 

Glencoe, the massacre of, 502. 
Glendower, Owen, Welsh leader, 257-259, 

262. 
Globe theatre, the, 417. 
Gloucester, 106, 114, 451, 452, 628. 

bishopric of, 345. 

cathedral of, 247. 

statute of, 183. 

Gloucester, Gilbert of Clare, E. of, son of 

Richard of Clare, 170, 174, 176, 248. 
Gilbert of Clare, E. of, son of the pre- 
ceding, 199, 201. 

Humphrey. D. of, 270, 277, 304. 

Richard of Clare. E. of, 169-170. 

Richard, D. of, 287, 291, 293. See 

Richard iii. 

Robert, E. of, 106, 112-114, 155. 

Isabella of. See Isabella. 

Thomas of Woodstock, D. of, 225, 

233, 234, 235. 

Gloucestershire, included in the kingdom 

of Wessex, 27. 
Goderich, Lord, prime minister, 647. 



Godfrey of Boulogne, K. of Jerusalem, 100. 

Godolphin, Lord, lord high treasurer, 509, 
511, 516-517, 522. 

Godwin, E. of Wessex, 60-62, 64. 

house of, 60-65. 

Goidels, the, or Gaelic race, 2, 3. 

Golden Hind, the, 396. 

Goldsmith, Oliver, man of letters, 637, 
638. 

Gondomar, Spanish ambassador, 431. 

Gordon, Lady Catharine, 311. 

Lord George, 585. 

General, 683. 

Gordon riots, the, 585. 

Goree, 587. 

Goring, Lord, royalist general, 453. 

Goscheo, G. J., statesman, 686, 688. 

Gotbic architecture, 153-154, 245-247, 302- 
303, 414, 529, 636, 704. 

Gough, Lord, 713. 

Grafton, D. of, prime minister. 576. 

Graham, James, M. of Montrose. See 
Montrose. 

John, of Claverhouse, Viscount Dun- 
dee, 501. See also Dimdee. 

Grand Alliance, the, 510, 512. 

Remonstrance, the, 448. 

Juries, in Ireland, 696. 

in England, 123. 

Granville, E.,553. .S'ee Carteret. 

Grasse, Admiral de, 684. 

Grattan, Henry, Irish orator, 585, 587, 
602-605. 

Graupius Mons, 8. 

Gravelines, 326, 399. 

battle off, 399. 

Great Council, the, 147, 239, 241. 

at York (1640), 445, 

Great Custom, the, 183. 

Greco-Turkish war, 691, 746. 

Greece, 746, 759. 

Constantine, king of, 754, 759. 

Greeks, the, 644, 645-646, 649, 668, 680, 
691, 746, 754, 759. 

Greenland, Norse settlers in, 41. 

Gregory i.. the Great, pope, sends mission- 
aries to Engiand, 29. 

VII., pope, 91, 92. See Hildebrand. 

IX., pope, 163. } 

Grenville, Sir Richard, 400. 

George, 574-575, 678. 

Lord, 612, 614. 

Grey, Lady Catharine, 405, 407. 

Sir Edward; afterwards viscount, 734, 

735, 747. 

Lady Jane, 360, 362. 

Sir John, 288. 

John de, bishop of Norwich, 141. 

Sir Ricbard, 295-296. 

Lord, of Ruthin, 257. 

Thomas, Marquis of Dorset, 295-296. 

See also. Dorset. 

Walter, archbishop of York, 179. 

Lord, Whig prime minister, 644, 651, 

655. 

Grey Friars, the, 243. Seealso Franciscans. 

Griffith ap Llewelyn, prince of Wales, 65, 
166. 

Grindal, Edmund, archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 374. 



78o 



INDEX 



Grossteste, Robert, bishop of Lincoln, 164. 

Gualo, papal legate, 159. 

Guelph, house of, 728. 

Guesclin, Bertrand du, 219, 221. 

Guiana, 431, 691, 720. 

Guienne, 126. See, also Gasconyand Aqui- 

taine. 
Guinea, 394. 

Guinegatte, battle of, 321. 
Guilds, 301-302. 
Guipuscoa, 508. 
Gujrtit, battle of, 713. 
Gulliver's Travels, Swift's, 637. 
Gunpowder, use of, 303. 

Plot, the, 427-428. 

Gurth, E. of East Anglia, 65, 71. 
Gustavus Adolphus, K. of Sweden, 440. 
Gutenberg, John, printer, 305. 
Guthrum, 44, 45. 
Gwynedd, 106, 117, 124. 



Habeas Corpus Act, the, 486 ; suspension 

of, 597. 

writ of, 437. 

Hadrian, Emperor, the wall of, 9, 10, 14. 
Haesten, attempts the conquest of Wesses, 

48. 
Haidar Ali, sultan of Mysore, 584, 585. 
Haig, Marshal Sir Douglas, 760. 
Hainault, 203, 211, 270. 
Hakluyt, his Principal Navigations of the 

English Nation, 418. 
Haldane, R. B., afterwards Viscount, 735, 

738, 745. 
Hales, Alexander, schoolman, 245. 

Sir Edward, 492. 

Halidon Hill, battle of, 209. 
Halifax, Yorkshire, 487. 

N. America, 581, 723. 

(Savile) Lord, 487. 

Charles Montague, Lord, 505. See 

also Montague. 
Hamilton, the house of, 383. 
Hammersmith, 451. 

Hampden, John, 440, 445, 417-449, 451. 
Hampton Court, conference at, 426. 
Handel, Frederick, musician, 636. 
Hanover, 542, 545, 566, 568, 625, 657. 

house of, 520, 536-728, 740. 

treaty of, 551. 

Hanse Merchants, the, 302. 
Hapsburg, the house of, 325, 366. 
Harcourt, Sir William, politician, 690, 691. 
Harding, John, chronicler, 304. 
Hardinge, Lord, governor-general of India, 

712. 
Harfleur, 264, 298. 
Hargreaves, inventions of, 627. 
Harlech, castle of, 247. 
Harley, Robert, E. of Oxford, 516, 517-521, 

544. See also Oxford. 
Harold Fairhair, K. of Norway, 41. 

Harefoot, king, 60, 61. 

son of Godwin, king. 62-64, 65-71. 

Hardrada, K. of Norway, 68. 

Harrogate, 527. 

Harthacnut, king, 60, 61. 

Hartington, marquis of, 684, 686, 690. See 

also Devonshire, D. of. 



Harvey, William, physician of Charles i., 

528. 
Hastings, battle of, 69-71. 

Lord, 296. 

Warren, govern or- general of India, 

585, 591, 708-709. 

marquis of, 711. 

Hatfield House, built by Robert Cecil, 414. 

Havana, 572, 573. 

Havelock, General, 715. 

Havre, le, 379, 609. 

Hawke, admiral, 568. 

Hawkins, William, seaman, 393. 

Sir John, son of the above, 394, 397, 

398, 400. 
Hawley, general, 558. 
Haye, la, farm of, 622, 

Sainte, la, farm of, 622, 623, 

Heathfield, battle of, 31. 

Heavenfield, battle of, 32. 

Bebrides, the, Norse settlers in, 43. 

Hedgeley Moor, battle of, 287. 

Heights of Abraham, the, 569. 

Heligoland, 688, 754. 

Hengist, traditional leader of the Jutes, 18. 

Hengston Down, battle of, 41. 

Henrietta Maria, of France, queen of 

Charles i., 433, 435. 
Henry i., of Aujou, K.of England, 94, 100, 

102-110. 

ir., 115, 116-136. 

III., 159-177. 

IV., 225, 234, 235-237, 255-260, 

v., 260, 262-269. 

vr., 270-283, 286, 287, 289, 291. 

Vir., 298-299, 308-316. 

VIII., 313, 317-351. 

II., K. of France, 366, 378. 

III., 391, 399. 

IV., 400, 430. 

IV., Emperor, 91. 

v., 108. 

VI,, 133. 

of Blois, bishop of Winchester, 111, 

114. 
the young king, son of Henry ii., 120, 

129. 

prince of Wales, son of James r. , 429. 

Stewart, cardinal of York, 558. 

the Lion, D. of Saxony, 129. 

Henryson, Robert, Scots poet, 306. 
Herbert, George, poet, 531, 
Hereford, earldom of, 87. 

Humphrey, E. of, 193. See also Bohun. 

Henry of Lancaster, D. of, 2-25, 234, 

235, 236. See also Derby, E. of, and 

Henry iv. 
Hereward, Anglo-Saxon leader, 84, 93. 
Herrick, Robert, poet, 531. 
Hertford, Edmund Seymour, E. of, 343, 

352-358. See also Somerset, D. of. 
Hesdin, 265. 
Hexham, battle of, 287. 
High Church, 487, 489,494, 497-498,516, 

517, 520, 632-633, 698-699. 
High Commission, Court of, 372, 410, 446, 

493, 495. 
Highlanders, the, 186, 501, 539, 556. 
Highlands, the, 307, 457, 459, 501-502, 539- 

540. 555, 558-559. 



INDEX 



781 



Highwajmien, 702. 

Hilda, abbess of Whitby, 35. 

Hlldebrand, Pope Gregory vii., 91. 

Hill, Rowland, postal reformer, 660. 

Hind and the Fanttier, the. Dryden'g, 532. 

Hindenbtirg, Marshal, 752, 758, 762. 

Hindus, the, 711. 

Hispaniola, 394, 469. 

History of the Rtbellion, Clarendon's, 532. 

Hijchstadt, 513. 

Hogarth, William, painter, 636. 

Holbeach, iu Staffordshire, 42s. 

Holbein, Hans, painter, 4l4. 

Holiushead, chronicles of, 418. 

Holkar, Maratha prince, 710, 715. 

Holland, 386. 464, 478, 480, 483, 502. 508, 

512, 542, 543, 562, 583, 587, 591, 598, 602, 

612, 615, 763. 
Holies, Denzil, parliamentary leader, 439. 
Holmby House, 460. 
Holstein, 672. 

Holy Alliance, the, 644, 655. 
Holy League, the, 320. 
Holyrood. 381, 556. 
Home Rule for Ireland, 680, 682, 685, 688, 

689, 742, 743, 744. 763-764. 
Hooker, Richard, on the Laws of Ecclesi- 
astical Polity, 374, 418. 
Hooper, John, bi:shop of Gloucester, 357, 

.364. 
Horsa, traditional leader of the Jutes, 18. 
Hotspur, Harry, 258. See also Percy. 
Hougoumont, 622. 
Hougue, la, 214 ; battle of, 503. 
Houuslow Heath, 493. 
House carles, the, 60, 69. 
Hoveden, Roger of, English chronicler, 155. 
Howard, Catharine, queen of Henry viii., 

347, 349. 

Lord, of Effingham, 397-399, 401. 

Lord TUomas, 400. 

Henry, E. of Surrey. See Surrey.' 

John, philanthropist, 635. 

Thomas, D. of iSIorfolk. See Surrey 

and Norfolk. 
Howe, general, 568. 

Sir William, 582. 

admiral, 584. 

Hubert de Burgh, justiciar, 160-161. 
Hubert Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, 

134, 137. 140. 
Hudson, the river, 479. 
Hugh Capet, king of France, election of, 66, 

67. 
Hugh of Avalon, St., bishop of Lincoln, 134, 

154, 247. 
Huguenots, the, 379, 437, 493, 525. 
Hull, 449, 451, 452, 733. 
Humber, the river, 84. 
Humble Petition and Advice, the, 470. 
Humbleton, battle of, 258. 
Hume, David, philosopher and historian, 

637. 638. 
Hundred, courts of the, 77, 147. 
Hungary, 366, 513. 753, 762. 
Huntingdon, earldom of, 106. See also 

David, E. of. 
Hurstmonceaux, 303. 
Huskisson, statesman, 614, 647. 
Huss, Jolin, Bohemian reformer, 267. 



Hyde, Edward, E. of Clarendon, 447, 448, 
475, 481, 532. 

Anne, first wife of .James ir., 481, 

Hyde Park, Exhibition in, 666. 

Iberians, the, iu Britain, 2, 3. 

Iceland, Norse settlers in, 41. 

Iceui, tribe of the, 8, 

Idle, battle of the, 30. 

Imperi.il Federation, 722, 764. 

Incident, the. 447. 

Indemnity Act, the (16G0"), 473. 

(1727), 547. 

Independents, ttie, 374, 459, 460, 461, 468, 
475. 

India, 424, 562-564, 684-585. 588, 491. 600, 
609-610, 659, 682, 688, 709-718, 740-741 
746, 754, 755, 761. ' 

Bill, Fox's, 588 ; Pitt's, 591 ; Derby's 

(1858), 715. 

Indies, the, 366, 392. 

Indulgence, declaration of (1673), 484. 

(1688), 494. 

Industrial revolution, the, 628-630. 

Inkerman, battle of, 670. 

Innocent iii., pope, 139, 141-143. 

IV., pope, 164. 

Inquisition, the, 377. 

Instrument of Government, the, 466-467. 

Insurance, National, 742. 

Inverlochy, battle of, 457. 

Inverness, 628. 

Investiture contest, the, 91, 104-105. 

lona, abbey of, 24, 28, 32. 

Ipswich, 318, 331. 

Ireland, 2, 12, 22, 24, 43, 74, 83, 93, 125- 
127, 159-161, 199, 236, 280, 282, 309, 311, 
316, 350, 401-404, 421-423, 443, 447, 452, 
463, 476-477, 498-500, 585, 599, 602-605, 
644, 648, 650, 659, 661, 663, 665, 666, 675- 
677, 678, 682, 687-689, 694, 731, 736, 742, 
743, 757, 763-764. 

conversion of, 12. 

Church of, disestablishment of, 650, 676. 

Land Act in, the first, 677. 

the second, 682. 

Ireton, parliamentarian general, 458. 

Iron Age, the, 3. 

Irwell, the river, 628. 

Isabella, of Angouleme, queen of John, 138, 
165. 

of France, queen of Edward 11., 203- 

208. 

queen of Richard 11., 235, 258. 

of Gloucester, first wife of King John, 

138. 

queen of Castile, 313. 

queen of Spain, 655. 

daughter of David, E. of Huntingdon, 

189. 

Isca Dumnoniornm, 11. See Exeter. 

Silurum, 8, 11. See Caerleou-on-Usk. 

Italy, 313, 319, 327, 366, 378, 413, 512, 543, 
572, 598, 601, 612. 666. 672. 678, 688, 745, 
746, 717, 754, 758, 761, 762. .S'et: also 
Rome and Romans. 

Jacobins, the, 595, 596. 

Jacobites, the, 498, 539-541, 555-559, 634. 



782 



INDEX 



Jacqueline of Bavaria, wife of Humphrey, 

D. of Gloucester, 27 1. 
Jacquetta of Luxemburg, wife of John , D. 

of Bedford, 275. 
JalaUMd, 712. 
Jamaica, 469, 479, 584. 
James, K. of England, i., 381, 420-434. 

ir., 478-484. 489-495, 498. 

K. of Scotland, i., 259, 271, 306. 

IV., 311, 314,' 321-323. 

v., 348. 

VI., 381, 383, 389, 407, See also 

James I. of England, 

VII. See James ii. of England. 

the Old Pretender, 494, 510, 52i. 

Jameson, Dr., raid of, 692, 725. 

Jamestown, 423. 

Japan, 693, 732, 733, 755. 

Jefferies, Chief Justice, 490. 

Jellico, admiral, 748, 755, 758. 

Jena, battle of, 614. 

Jerusalem, 131, 133, 277, 668, 761. 

Jervis, admiral, 599. 

Jesuits, the, 377, 388. 

Jews, the, 150, 185, 468. 

Joan of Arc, 272-275. 

of Kent, princess of Wales,, 225. 

sister of Edward in., queen of David 

Bruce, 205. 
queen of Spain, daughter of Ferdinand 

and Isabella, 314, 324. 
Johannesburg, 725, 727. 
John. K. of England, 127, 129, 134, 137-145. 

K. of France, 217. 218, 219. 

Don, of Austria, 386, 391. 

of Gaunt. See Gauut, John of. 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 637, 638. 
Jones, Inigo, architect, 529. 

Paul, American privateer, 584. 

Jonson, Ben, dramatist, 530. 

Joseph II., Emperor, 594. 

Ferdinand, electoral prince of Bavaria, 

508. 
Jubilee, the, of 1887, 688. 

• the Diamond, 694. 

Judicature Act, Selborne's, 678. 
Judith, niece of William i., 88. 
Julius II., pope, 313, 320, 323, 335. 
Junius, anonymous writer, 576. 
.Junot, general, 615, 616. 
Junto, the >Vhig, 505. 516, 
Jura mountains, the, 750. 
Jury system, the, 123, 148, 173. 
Justices of the Peace, 411, 696. 
Justiciar, office of, 96, 107, 112, 117, 134, 

144, 147, 162. 
Jutes, the, first Teutonic settlers in Britain, 

16, 18. 
Jutland, battle off, 755. 
JuxoD, bishop of London, 442. 

Kabui,, 712, 716, 

Kaiser, the. See William i, and William ii., 

German emperors. 
Karnatik, the, 563, 564, 710. 
Keats, John, poet, 639. 
Keble, John, poet and divine, 698. 
Kelso, 541. 

Ken, bishop of Bath and Wells, 494, 498. 
Kenilworth, castle of, 175, 



Kenilworth, dictum de, 176„ 

Kenmure, Lord. 539, 541. 

Kenneth MacAlpine, K. of Picts and Scots, 

24. 
Kennington Common, chartist meeting on, 

666. 
Kent, 18, 27, 28, 30, 40, 77, 231, 279, 311, 

362, 461, 630. 
Kentigern, first bishop of Glasgow. 28. 
Ker, Robert, E. of Somerset, 429-430. 
Ket, Robert, of Wymondham, 356. 
Khaibar pass, the, 712. 
Khalifa, the, 692-693. 
Khartum, 683, 693. 
Khurd-Kabul pass, the, 712. 
Kildare, earls of, 309, 310. 311, 316, 350. 

See Fitzgerald. 
Kilkenny, statute of, 225. 
Killiecrankie, battle of, 501. 
Kilwardby, Robert, archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 245. 
Kimberley, 725. 
Kimbolton, Lord, 448. See also Manchester 

E, of. 
King's Bench, the, 241. 
King's College, Cambridge, 301, 303. 
King's County, 401. 
Kirk o' Field, the, 381, 
Kirkstall abbey, 153, 
Kitchener. Herbert, Lord, 692-693, 727, 729. 

748, 750, 756, 757. 
Klondike, 723. 

Kloster Zeven, the capitulation of, 566, 
Kneller, Godfrey, painter, 530. 
Knighthood, orders of, 249. 
Knights, 148, 

of the shire, 173. 

Knox, John, Scottish reformer, 375, 376, 

380, 707. 
Kruger, Paul, Boer president, 725, 726. 
Kut-el-Amara, 754, 759. 



La Fere, 762. 

Labour Party, the, 735. 741. 

Labourers, the statute of, 222, 230. 

Labrador, 393. 

Lady smith, siege of, 726, 727. 

Lake, general, 604, 609. 

Lake School, the, 638, 706. 

Lamb, Charles, essayist, 706. 

Lambert Simnel, impostor, 309-310. 

Lambert, general, 471, 

Lambeth, treaty of, 160. 

Lancashire, 240, 541, 556, 628, 652, 672. 

Lancaster, earldom of, 175. 

house of, 201, 225, 255-283, 286. 

Thomas, E. of, 201, 202. 

Henry, K. of, 203, 204, 205, 208. 

son of aboye, 216. 

See Blanche of, and Gaunt, John of, D. of. 
Land League, the Irish, 680, 682. 
Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, 90-92, 

94, 95, 
Langland, William, poet, 252. 
Langside, battle of, 383. 
Langton, Stephen, archbishop of Cafiter- 

bury, 141-142, 144, 160, 161, 
Lansdowne, Lord, 731. 
Laon, 762, 



INDEX 



78. 



Latimer, Lord, 226. 

. Hugh, bishop of Worcester, 345, 353, 

364. 
Latin literature, 154-156, 250. 
Latitudinarianisoi, 487, 498, 632, 634. « 
Laud, William, archbishop of Canterbury, 

427, 430, 441-443, 446, 457. 
Lauderdale, John Maitland, E. of, 476, 482. 
Law, A. Bonar, 756-757. 
Lawrence, Henry and John, in India, 713. 
Leeds, 652, 653, 675. 
Thomas Osborne, D. of 505. See also 

Danby. 
Leicester, 50. 

abbey of, 336. 

earldom of, 163. 

Robert, E. of, justiciar of Henry 11., 

117. 

Robert Dudley, E. of, 370, 392, 398. 

See Montfort, Simon, E. of. 

House, 549, 570. 

Leighton, Alexander, Scottish physician, 

442. 
Leinster, 604 ; Dermot, K. of, 125. 
Leipzig, battle of, 621. 
Leith, 375. 

Leix, 40. % 

Lely Peter, painter, 530. 
Lennox, E. of, 380, 381. 
Leo X., pope, 323. 
Leofric, E. of Mercia, 60, 64, 65. 
Leofwine, E. of Kent, 65, 71. 
Leopold, D. of Austria, 133. 

1., Emperor, 507. 

of Saxony-Cobm-g, K. of the Belgians, 

651. 
Leslie, Alexander, Lord Leven, 444, 453. 

, David, 453, 456, 459, 464. 

Levellers, the, 463. 

Lewes, battle of, 171, 172 ; the Mise of, 172. 

Lexington, battle of, 581. 

Liberal Unionists, 686, 690. See also 

Unionists. 
Liberals, the, 664, 676, 684, 735-738, 741, 

756-757. 
Licensing Act (1904), 731. 
Licensing Bill (1908), 737. 
Lichfield, 33, 37, 38, 75, 90. 
Liege, 512. 
Ligny, battle of, 622. 
Lille, 515, 750, 752, 763. 
Limerick, 125, 500 ; treaty of, 500. 
Limoges, 222. 
Limousin, the, 219. 
Lincoln, 5G, 75, 90, 114 ; bishop of, 112 ; 

castle of, 152; cathedral of, 154, 245; 

battle of, 160. 
Lindisfarne, 32, 33. 
Lindsey, E. ot, 450. 
Lindum, 11, 12. See also Lincoln. 
Lionel, D. of Clarence, 225, 282. See 

Clarence. 
Lisbon, 400, 620. 
Liverpool, 626, 628, 675, 684, 702. 

Lord, 613, 644, 647, 

Llewelyn ap lorwerth, prince of Wales, 166. 
ap Griffith, prince of Wales, 166, 174, 

176. 179-181, 222. 
Lloyd George, David, 735, 736, 738, 742, 

757-758, 760, 763. 



Local Government Board, the, 696. 

Lochleven, castle of, 383. 

Locke, John, philosopher, 637. 

Loire, the river, 115, 126, 271, 272, 273. 

Lollards, the, 229, 256, 262-263. 

Loudinium, 8, 11, 12. See also London. 

London. 64, 69, 71, 75, 114, 117, 150, 231, 

243, 263, 279, 283, 287, 289, 291, 296, 302, 

312, 336, 344, 360, 362, 417, 450, 451, 452, 

471, 481, 495, 525-526, 585, 626, 652, 683, 

702. 

treaty of (1359), 218. 

Londonderry, Lord, 643, 645. See also 

Castlereagh. 
Longchamp, W'illiam, bishop of Ely and 

chancellor, 132, 134. 
Lords, House of, 239, 462, 470, 472, 518, 
■ 537, 590, 643, 653, 658, 689, 737, 738, 739, 

741-742, 744. 

Appellant, the, 234, 238, 256. 

Ordainers, the, 199. 

Lorraine, 273, 678, 750. 

Rene of, 277. 

Francis, D. of, 554, 555. 

Losinga, Herbert of, bishop of Norwich, 

153. 
Lothian, 54, 186, 209. 
Louis, K. of France, vi ., 107, 115. 

vii.. 127. 

VIII., 140, 145, 159-160. 

IX., 162, 165, 170, 177. 

XI., 288, 289, 291, 292. 

XII., 319, 323. 

XIII., 430, 433, 438, 440. 

XIV., 469, 477-485, 493, 502, 503, 

507, 508, 510-515, 518-520, 744. 

XV., 539, 543, 594. 

XVI., 583, 594, 595. 

XVIII., 621, 623. 

Philippe, K. of the French, 650, 655, 

660, 666. 

son of Louis xiv., 507. 

of Bavaria, the emperor, 211. 

Louisburg, 568. 

Louisiana, French colony of, 665, 573. 

Lovel, Lord, 309, 310. 

Lovett, William, Chartist, 659. 

Low Church, 487, 498, 632, 633, 699. 

Lowlands of Scotland, the, 186, 540. 

Loyola, Ignatius, 377. 

Lucknow, 714, 715. 

Lucy, Richard of, justiciar of Henry 11., 

117. 
Ludlow, 282, 295, 315, 350, 410. 
Luneville, treaty of, 601. 
Lusignan, Hugh of, 138, 165. 

house of, 175-166, 170. 

Lusitania, the (ship), 756. 

Luther, Martin, reformer, 332, 333. 

Lutterworth, 229. 

Lyme Regis, 490. 

Lyons, Richard, merchant, 226. 

Lys, the river, 750. 

Lytton, Lord, novelist, 716. 

Macadam, engineer, 702. 

MacAlpine, Kenneth, king of the Scots and 

Picts, 24. 
Macaulay, Thomas Babington, historian, 

706-707. 



;84 



INDEX 



Macdonalds, the, 501, 502, 540, 556. 

Macedonia. 746, 754, 759, 761. 

Maclan, of Glencoe, 501. 

Macintosh, Brigadier, 541. 

Mackay, general, 501. 

Mackensen, general, 753. 

Mackenzies, the, 540. 

Madras, 425, 562, 563, 564, 710, 714, 715. 

Madrid, 515, 616, 617, 618, 620. 

Magellan, straits of, 396. 

Magna Carta, 144, 151 ; reisf^ues of, 160, 193, 

Magnus Intercursus, tbe, 312. 

Ma'hdi, the, 683. 

Maine (France), 93, 100, 108, 126, 277. 

(N. America), 660. 

Main Plot, the, 426. 

Mainz, 305. 

Maisohcelles, 265. 

Major-generals, the, 467. 

Majuba Hill, battle of, 725. 

Malakov, capture of the, 671. / 

Malcolm i., K. of Scots, 52. 

III., Canmore, 84, 92, 93, 99. 

IV., 117. 

Maletote, the, 193. 

Malmesbury, William of.Englishchronicler, 

155. 
Malplaquet, battle of, 515. 
Malta, 599, 602, 681. 
Malus Intercursus, the, 313 
Malvoisin, castle built by William ii., 95. 
Manchester, 51, 449, 556, 625, 628, 652, 653, 

662, 675, 676, 684, 702. 

E. of, 452, 453, 457, 458. See also 

Kimbolton. 

Manchuria, 694, 733. 

Mandeville, Geoffrey of, E. of Essex, 114. 

Manila, 572, 573. 

Manitoba, 723. 

Man, Isle of, Norse settlers in, 43. 

Manorial system, the, 149, 150. 

Mans, le, capital of Maine, 93, 101. 

Mantes, taken by William i., 93. 

Mar, John Erskine, E. of, 540. 541. 

Mari£th4s, the, 562, 584, 609, 710, 711. 

March of Wales, the, 99, 174, 282, 286, 350. 

• title of E. of (see Mortimer), 208 ; 

earldom of, 279. 

Edmund Mortimer, E. of (d. 1381), 

225, 226. 

Edmund Mortimer, E. of (d. 1424), 

257, 262, 264. 

Edward of York, E. of, 282, 283. See 

also Edward iv. 

Roger Mortimer, first E. of, 203-208, 

225. 

Marchand. major, 693. 
Marchers, revolt of the, 174. 
Marengo, battle of, 601. 
Mare, Peter de la, speaker, 227. 
Margaret.St., queen of Malcolm Canmore, 99, 

103. 

queen of Lonis ix., 162. 

the Maid of Norway, queen of Scots, 

187, 188. 

daughter of David of Huntingdon, 188. 

sister of Pbilip IV., queen of Edward i., 

194. 
of Anjou, que&n of Henry vi., 277, 280, 

289, 291. 



Margaret of Burgundy, sister of Edward iv. , 
288, 309-311. 

Tudor, queen of James iv., of Scots, 

314,323, 380. 

Theresa, of Spain, queen of Louis xiv., 

507. 

the lady. See Beaufort, Margaret. 

Maria, Infanta of Spain, 430, 432-433. 
Theresa, of Austria, 552-555, 559, 565, 

573. 

of Spain, 507. 

Marignano, battle of, 324. 

Marlborough, lady. 611. 

John Churchill, E., and afterwards D. 

of, 504, 511-517. ;See Churchill. 
Marlowe, Christopher, dramatist, 417. 
Marmont, general, 620. 
Marmora, sea of, 681. 
Marne, the, river, battles of the, 748-750, 

761. 
Marseilles. See Massilia. 
Marshall, general, 761. 
Marshall, the ofBce of. 147. 

William, E. of Pembroke, 144, 159- 

160. 

Eichard, E. of Pembroke, 161. 

Marsin, Marshall, 513, 514. 
Marston Moor, battle of, 453, 456. 
Martin v., pope, 266. 
Martin Marprelate Tracts, the, 374. 
Mary, of Burgundy, daughter of Charles 
the Bold, 292, 323. 

Tudor, d. of Henry vii., queen of 

Louis XII. of France, afterwards duchess 
of Suffolk, 323, 359, 360. 

d. of Henry viii., queen. 334, 346, 

359, 361-367, 401. 

of Guise, 375. 

Q. of Scots, 348, 353, 354, 376, 379, 

380, 389. 

, princess of Orange, d. of James n., 

afterwards queen, 485, 494, 495-504. 

of Modena, queen of James ii., 494. 

of Teck, queen of George v., 740. 

Maryborough, 401. 

Maryland, the plantation of, 423. 

Maserfield, battle of, 32. 

Masham, Mrs., 517. 

Massachusetts, 424, 581. 

Massena, general, 620. 

Massilia, (Marseilles), the trade of the 

Britons with, 5. 
Massinger, Philip, dramatist, 530. 
Matilda of Flanders, queen of William i., 

94. 

of Boulogne, queen of Stephen, 114. 

d. of Henry i., empress and countess of 

Anjou, 107, 108, 111-115. 
Maude, general. Sir Stanley, 759, 761. 
Mauritius, 623, 720. 
Maxima Coesariensis, 10. 
Maximilian i., the emperor, 292, 310, 311, 

312, 320, 325. 
Mayflower, the, 423. 
Mayue, Cuthbert, 388. 
Maynooth College, 661. 
Medina Sidonia, D. of, 397. 
Mediterranean, the, 600, 682. 
Medway, the river, 478. 
Meerut, 714. 



INDEX 



785 



Melbourne. Lord, prime minister, 651, 655- 

657, 659-660. 

town of, 724. 

Melrose, abbey of, 306. 

Mendicant Friars, the, 167, 243. 

Mercantile System, the, 525. 

Merchant Adventurers, society of the, 302 

393. 
Merchant-guilds, 150. 
Mercia, 19, 27, 35-37, 38, 40, 50, 51, 53, 59 

60, 61, 65. 
Meredith, George, novelist, 706. 
Merioneth, 181. 
Mersey, the, 628. 
Merton, "Walter of, founder of Merton 

College, Oxford, 245. 
Mesopotamia, 754, 759, 76J. 
Messia]i, the, Handel's, 636. 
Messines ridge, 758. 
Methodists, the, 632-633. 
Methueu, general, Lord, 729. 

Treaty, the, 513. 

Meuse, the river, 752, 762. 
Mexico, 394. 
Mfani, battle of, 712. 
Miausson, the river, 217, 
Middle English, 156, 252. 
Middlesex, 19, 77, 576. 

Lord, treasurer of James i., 434, 

Miguel, Dom, of Portugal, 649, 655. 

Milan, 319, 320, 324, 327, 515,554, 559, 623. 

Milanese, the, 508. 

Mile End, 231. 

Milford Haven, 298. 

Military Orders, the, 154. 

Militia Bill, the, 449. 

Millenary Petition, the, 426. 

Milton, John, poet, 463, 531, 532. 

Minden, battle of, 568. 

Mine, the, 755, 756. 

Minorca, 515, 518, 566, 573, 584, 587. 

Minorites, tbe, 243. See also Franciscans. 

Mirebeau, 139. 

Mississippi, the river, 565, 573. 

Moderates, the, of the Scotch church, 634. 

Mogul, the, 425. 

empire of tbe, 526, 711, 740. 

Mohammedans, in Sj^ria, 100, 131. 
Moidart, landing-place of Charles Edward, 

555. 
Moldavia, 668, 669, 
Mompesson, Sir Giles, 433. 
Mona, 8. .S'ee Anglesey. 
Monastic orders, 29, 34-35, 49, 54-55, 80, 

154-155, 242-244, 342-345. 
Monk, George, 471, 479. 
Monmouth, Geoffrey of, 156. 

James, D. of, 487, 488, 490. 

Monopolies, 406, 433. 

Monroe doctrine, the, 645, 

Mons, 748, 761. 

Mons Graupius, battle of, 9. 

Montagu (earls of Salisbury^ family of, 

281, 285. 
John Neville, Marquis of, 291. See 

also Meville John, E. of Northumberland. 
Montague, Charles, financier, lord Halifax, 

503, 505, 506. 
Montcalm, marquis of, 563-56 
Montenegro, 680, 681, 761. 



Montcreau, on the Yonne, 267. 
Montfort, Simon of, E. of Leicester 103 

166, 169, 170, 171-177. 

Eleanor, 1 79. 

John of, Duke of Brittany, 213 216 

Montgomery, lordship of, 100. 

Montreal, 569. 

Montrose, James Graham, E., afterwards 

M., of, 444, 457, 459, 464. 
Mont-Saint- Jean, 622. 
Moore, Sir John, 617. 
Moravians, the, 633. 
Moray, James Stewart, E. of. 380. 331. 383 

385. . > 1 , 

Morcar, E. of Northumbria, 66, 68 69 71 
84, 85, 94. » . . . 

More, Sir Thomas, 330, 331, 333, 340, 341 

Morgan, William, bishop of St. Asaph, 404. 

Morley, John, afterwards viscount, 735 

Morocco, 733, 745. 

Morris, William, poet, 706. 

Mortimer, Roger, of Wigmore, first E. of 

March, 203-208, 225. 
Edmund, E. of March (d, 1381), 225» 

226. 
Edmund, E, of March (d. 1424). 257. 

262, 264. 

Sir Edmund, 257-258. 

Anne, 280. 

Mortimer's Cross, battle of, 283. 
Mortmain, Statute of, 183. 
Morton, Cardinal, archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 314. 

E. of, Scottish regent, 385, 

Moscow, 620, 

Mosul, 761. 

Mountjoy, lord, Charles Blount, 484. 

Mousehold Heath, 356. 

Mowbray, Robert, E. of Northumberland. 

95. 
Thomas, E. of Nottingham, 234, 235: 

D. of Norfolk, 235, 236. See also 

Nottingham and Norfolk. 
Municipal Corporations Reform Act, 654. 
Munitions, ministry of, 757. 
Munster, Plantation of, 402, 404, 416. 
Muscovy Company, the, 393. 
Mutiny Act, the, 497. 

the Indian, 714-715. 

Mysore, 584, 585, 600. 
Mysteries and Miracle Plays, 334. 



Nagpdr, annexation of, 713. 

Niijera, battle of, 221. 

Namur, capture of, 503. 

Nana Sahib, 714. 

Nancy, battle of, 292. 

Nantes, the edict of, 400, 493. 

Napier, of Merchiston, inventor of loga- 
rithms, 528. 

Sir Charles, 712. 

Naples, 169, 313, 319, 334, 508, 515, 552, 
612, 664. 

Napoleon i.. Emperor of the French, 610- 
623, 744, 755. See also Buonaparte. 

Napoleon in., Emperor of the French, 
Louis Napoleon, 666-667, 671, 673, 678. 
See also Buonaparte. 

Napoleonic War, the, 608-625, 



^m 



INDEX 



Naseby, battle of, 458-459. 
Natal, 724, 726, 730. 
National Debt, the, 503. 

Gallery, the, 705, 

Ministry, the (1915), 756. 

University of Ireland, 737. 

Nationalists, Irish, 680, 684, 686-688, 735, 

741, 757, 763, 764, See also Home Rule. 
Nationality, the principle of, 615, 620, 625, 

646, 650, 672, 678, 680. 
Navarino, battle of, 646. 
Navarre, 320, 400. 
Navigation Act, of 1651, 465, 478. 
Navy, the, 48, 212-213, 345, 393, 397-399, 

411, 440, 465, 469, 478, 502-503, 566, 5.84, 

599, 600, 611-612, 697-698, 748, 754, 758. 
Nebel, the river; 513. 
Neckar, the river, 513. 
Nectansmere, battle of, 35. 
Nelson, Horatio, lord, admiral, 599, 600, 

601, 611. 
Neolithic Age, the, 1. 
Netherlands, the, 212, 288, 289, 292, 301, 

305, 309, 310, 324, 366, i377, 387, 391, 502, 

503, 514-516, 518, 555, 559, 596, 601, 622, 

625, 651. 
Neuve Chapelle, battle of, 752, 
Neville, the house of, 2S1. 
Richard, E. of Salisbury, 281, 282. 

Richard, E. of Warwick, 282. See 

also Warwick and Salisbury. 

George, bishop of Worcester and Arch- 
bishop of York, 283, 287, 288, 289. 

John, E. of Northumberland, and 

Marquis Montagu, 288, 291. 

Cecily, duchess of York, 281. 

Anne, 288, 289, 293. 

Isabella, 288, 293; 

Neville's Cross, battle of, 216. 

New Amsterdam, 479. 

New Brunswick, 723. 

Newburgh, William of, English chronicler, 

155. 
Newburn, battle of, 445. 
Newbury, first battle of, 456. 

second battle of, 456. 

Newcastle, town of, 9, 445. 

E. of, general, 451, 452, 453. 

Newcastle, Thomas Pelham, D. of, 549, 

560,561, 566, 572, 573, 574. 
New College, Oxford, 301. 
New England, the plantation of, 423. 
New Forest,the, 87, 101. 
Newfoundland, 393, 401, 518, 564, 723, 732, 
New Jersey, colony of, 479. 
Newman, John Henry, cardinal, 662, 698, 

700, 706. 
New Model Ordinance, the, 458, 459. 
New Orleans, 565. 
Newport, Monmouthshire, 659. 
New South Wales, 720, 724. 
Newton, Isaac, mathematician, 529. 
. Newtown Butler, battle of, 499. 
New York, 479, 582, 584. 

Zealand, 724, 741, 755. 

troops, 754. 

Nicholas r., tsar of Russia, 646, 668. 

II.. tsar of Russia, 753. 

Nieuport, 750. 
Nile, the, 683. 



Nile, battle of, 600. 

Ninian, St., sent to convert the Cale- 
donians, 12. 
Nonconformists, 374, 699. 
Non-Jurors, the, 498. 
Nore, the, mutiny at, 599. 
Norfolk, 19, 77, 631. 
earJs of, 87, 193. See also Bigod and 

Mowbray. 

Thomas Howard (1), D. of, 323. 

(2), D. of, son of, foregoing, 

336, 344, 348, 349, 361. 
(grandson of above), 

384, 385. 
Normandy, 43, 48, 63, 64, 83, 88, 93-95, 

100-104, 108, 111, 114, 116, 126-129, 134, 

135, 138-140, 169, 213-214, 267, 276, 278, 

320. 
Normans, the, 63-64, 69-72, 83-89, 103, 122- 

123, 125. 
Northallerton, battle of, 112. 
Northampton, 460. 

Assize of, 123. 

battle of, 282. 

Council of, 119. 

treaty of, 205, 208. 

North Briton, the, 574. 
Northcote, Sir Stafford, politician, 679. 
North, Council of tbe, 344, 410, 446. 
North, Lord, prime minister, 576^577, 580, 

585-589. 
Northumberland, 702. 
Henry Percy, E. of, 227, 236, 258-259. 

See also Percy. 

John Dudley, D. of, 354, 357, 358-361. 

Thomas Percy, E. of, 384. 

Northumbria, 19, 27, 30-35, 40, 43, 51-53, 

59, 60, 62, 74, 90. 
Norsemen, migrations of, 40. 
Norway, 187. 
Norwich, 90, 151, 356, 526. 

cathedral of, 153. 

Nottingham, 50, 449. 

castle of, 208. 

— . — Thomas Mowbray, E. of, 234, 235. 

See also Mowbray. 

Finch, E. of (queen Anne), 511, 516. 

Nova Scotia (Acadie), 51S, 723. 
Novum Organum, Bacon's, 528. 



Oates, Titus, informer, 485, 489. 
O'Brien, Smith, leader of Young Ireland, 

666. 
Occasional Conformity, Act against, 543. 
Ockham, William of, schoolman, 245. 
O'Connell, Daniel, Irish agitator, 648, 649, 

655,659, 661, 
O'Connor, Feargus, chartist, 666. ^ 

Odo, bishop of Bayeux, 83 ; E. of KettL, 87, 

94, 95. 
Offa, K. of Mercia, 36-37. 
Offaly, district of, 401. 
Ohio, the river, 565, 566. 
Oise, the river, 750, 760, 761. 
Oldcastle, Sir John, Lord Cobham, 262- 

263. 
Old Sarum, 636. 
Olney, treaty of, 59. 
Omduroian, battle of, 693. 



INDEX 



7^7 



O'Neill, Shane, 402. 

Hugd, E. of Tyrone, 404, 422. 

Owen Roe, 447. 

O'Neills, Earls of Tyrone. See Tyrone, 

Earls of. 
Ontario, province of. 723. 
Orangemen, the, 603. 
Orange River Free State, the, 724, 726, 

729, 730. 
Ordainers, the Lords, 199, 202. 
Orders in Council, the, 614, 621. 
Ordinances, the (1312), 199. 
Ordovices, tribe of the, 8. 
Orewyn Bridge, battle of, 180. 
Orford, Russell, admiral, E. of, 503, 505, 517. 
Robert Walpola, E. of, 553. See 

Walpole, Sir Robert. 
Origin of Species, Darwin's, 705. 
Orinoco, the river, 431. 
Orissa, 710. 

Orkney, Norse settlers in, 42, 
Orkneys, the, 756. 
Orleans, siege of, 272-273. 

Philip, D. of, regent, 539, 543. 

Ormonde, the duke of, 476-477, 518. 

Orwell, in Essex, 203. 

Osborne, Sir Thomas. See Danby and 

Leeds. 
Osteud, 762. 

Oswald, K. of Northumbria, 32. 
Oswin, K. of Northumbria, 32-33. 
Ottawa, 723. 
Otto I., the Great, Emperor, 52. 

IV., Emperor, 139, 140. 

papal legate, 164. 

Oudenarde, battle of, 515. 

Oudh, the nawab of, 710, 713, 714. 

Ourcq, the river, 748. 

Ouse, the river, 17 '. 

Outlanders, th^ 725. 

Overbury, Sir Thomas, 429. 

Owen Gwynned, prince of Wales, 117. 

Sir, of Wales, 222. 

Robert, socialist, 659, 703. 

Glendower. See Glendower, Owen. 

Oxford, 60, 155, 243, 244, 245, 301, 345, 357, 

451, 45?, 632, 698, 700, 708. 

Provisions of, 168, 170. 

Reformers, the, 330. 

University of, 155, 244-245, 301, 528, 

632, 700, 708. 

Robert de Vere, E. of, 232. 

Robert Harley, E. of, 536. See also 

Harley. 



Pacific Ocean, the, 396, 559, 723, 755. 
Palaeolithic Age, the, 1. 
Palatine Earldoms, the, 86. 
Palestine, 100, 132, 177, 759, 761. 
Palladio, Italian architect, 529. 
Palmerston, Viscount, prime minister, 651, 

655, 660, 665-667, 671-673. 
Panama, the isthmus of, 396. 
Pan- Anglican Synod, the, 699. 
Pandulf, papal legate, 142, 160. 
Panther, The (ship), 745. 
Paradise Lost, Milton's. 532. 
Paris, 189, 214, 219, 244, 269, 275, 276, 595, 

621, 623, 678, 748, 761. 



Paris, treaties of, 169, 206, 210, 572, 621, 623, 

671. 

the parliament of, 221. 

Matthew, historian, 259. 

Parker, Matthew, archbishop of Canterbury, 

372-373. 

admiral, 601. 

Parker's Advertisements, 373. 
Parliament, the name of, 239. 

history of, 239-241, 256, 292, 300, 314, 

328, 406-407, 408-409, 425, 495, 537-538, 
763, 764. 

reform of, 466-467, 577, 590, 597, 625, 

630, 651-653, 741-742, 743, 744, 764, Se6 
also Reform Acts, the. 

the Mad, 168, 

of 1265, 173. 

the Moilel, 191. 

of York, 202. 

the Good, 226, 227, 240. 

the Merciless, 234, 239. 

the Reformation, 338-339, 343. 

of James i., 428, 433, 434. 

the Addled, 429. 

of Charles I., 436, 438-439. 

the Short, 445. 

the Long, 446-465, 471. 

Barebones', 466. 

the Convention (1660), 472-47i. 

at Oxford, 487. 

the Convention (^1689), 495. 

Parliament Bill, the, 741-742. 
Parma, 551, 559, 607. 

Alexander Farnese, D. of, 391, 392, 

397. 

Pamell, Charles Stewart, Irish leader, 68C, 

682, 685, 687-688. 
Parsons, Robert, Jesuit, 388. 
Partition treaties, the, 508. 
Paschal ii., pope, 105. 
Paston Letters, the, 304. 
Patay, battle of, 273. 
Paterson, his Darien scheme, 506. 
Patrick, St., his conversion of the Irish^ 

12. 
Patriot King, on tlie idea of a, Boling- 

broke's, 550, 570. 
Patriot Whigs, the, 549. 
Patronaae Act, of 1712, 7O0. 
Paul, pope. III., 341. 

IV., 366. 

tsar of Russia, 601 . 

Paulinus, first archbishop of York, 30, 31. 
Paullinus, Suetonius, Roman governor, 9. 
Pavia, battle of, 327. 
Peasants' Revolt, the, 229-232. 
Peckham, John, archbishop of Canterbury, 

184, 192, 245. 
Peel, Sir Robert, prime minister, 644, 646- 

649, 655. 656, 660-664. 
Peelites, the, 664, 667, 671, 673, 
Peerage Bill, the, 542. 
Pekin, 694. 
Pelagius, the opponent of Saint Augustine, 

12. 
Pelham, Henry, prime minister, 549, 552, 

559-560. 
Pelican, the, 39G. 
Peloponnesus, the, 646, 647. 
Pembroke, Palatine earldom of. 106, 103. 



788 



INDEX 



Pembroke, castle of, 152. 

Richard, E. of, 125. See, also Strong- 
bow. 

• Richard Marshall, E. of. See Marshall. 

William Marshall, E. of. ^Sfee Marshall. 

Penal Code, in Ireland, the, 500. 

Penda, K. of Mercia, 27-32. 

Penn, admiral, 469. 

William, Quaker, 479. 

Pennsylvania, 479. 

Penny Postage, establishment of, 659. 

Perceval, Speocer, prime minister, 613. 

Percy, house of, 286, 288, 304. 

Henry, E. of Northumberland, 227, 

236, 258-259. See also Northumberland. 

Henry, Hotspur, 258. 

Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 
638. 

Peronn^, 265, 752. 

Perrers, Alice, 226, 227. 

Persian Gulf, the, 754. 

Perth, 540, 541. 

Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester, 
161. 

the Cruel, K. of Castile, 219, 221. 

Martyr, reformer, 357. 

the Great, tsar of Russia, 343, 373. 

III., tsar of Russia, 573. 

Peterborough, 75, 153, 156, 345. 

Peterloo, massacre of, 625. 

Petitioners, the, 486. 

Petition of Right, the, 438. 

Petrarch, Italian poet, 251. 

Pevensey, landing of William of Nor- 
mandy at, 69. See also Anderida. 

Philadelphia, 480, 580, 582. 

Philip, I., K. of France, 93. 

■ ir., 129, 132-134, 137, 138, 160. 

III., 177, 189. 

. IV., 189-191, 194-195. 

vr., 206, 210-217. 

1., K. of Spain, son of Maximilian of 

Austria, 313, 314, 324. 

II., 362, 363, 366, 378, 386, 388, 

390, 392, 394, 397, 400, 424. 

IV., 430. 

v., D. of Anjou, 508, 515, 516, 

518, 543, 551. 

, Don, son of Philip v., 559. 

Philip, captain, 720. 

Philiphaugh, battle of, 459. 

Philippa of Hainault, queen of Edward ill., 
203, 225, 251. 

■ Countess of March, d. of Lionel of 

Clarence, 225. 

Philipstown, 401. 

Physical Force Party, of chartists, 659. 

Piave, the river, 759, 762. 

Picquigni, the treaty of. 292. 

Plcts, the, 14, 15, 22, 24. 

Piedmont, 512, 607. 

Piers Plowman, the vision of, 252. 

Pilgrimage of grace, the, 344. 

Pilgrim Fathers, the, 423. 

Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan's, 475, 532. 

Pilleth, battle of, 257. 

Pindaris, Indian freebooters, 710. 

Pinkie, battle of, 354. 

Pitt, AVilliam, E. of Chatham. 549, 553, 
560, 561, 566-569, 571, 575, 580, 583. 



Pitt, William, the younger, 557, 589, 596- 

602, 603-605, 610-612, 635. 
Pius v., pope, 385, 397. 
Plague, the Great, 481. 
Plan of campaign, the, 686-687. 
Plassey, battle of, 564. 
Plautius, Aulus, Roman general, 8. 
Plumer, general, 758. 
Plymouth, 289, 393, 451. 

New, 424. 

Plymouth Sound, 398. 

Poitevins, the, 161. . 

Poitiers, capital of Poitou, 126. 

battle of, 217-218. 

PoitOH, 126, 138, 139, 161, 165, 169, 219. 

Poland, 591, 625, 752. 

Pole, Margaret. See Salisbury, Margaret, 

Countess of. 
Pole, Michael de la, E. of Suffolk, 233, 234. 
William de la, E. (afterwards D.), 

of Suffolk, 277-279. See also Suffolk. 
Reginald, Cardinal and archbishop of 

Canterbury, 341, 346, 363, 364-367. 
Polish Succession, war of the, 552. 
PoUtax, the (1381), 231. 
Pondicherri, 562, 563, 564, 573. 
Pontefract, 202, 237, 257. 
Ponthieu. 189, 214, 219. 
Poor Laws, 412, 654. 
Pope, Alexander, poet, 636. 
Popes, the. See Gregory i. , Gregory vii.. 

Urban ii., Clement (anti-pope), Alexander 

III., Innocent iir., Gregory ix., Boniface 

viii., Clement v., Urban vi., Martin v., 

Julius II., Leo X., Clement vii., Paul iii., 

Paul IV,, Pins iv. 
Porteous riots, the, 550-551. 
Port Jackson, New South Wales, 720. 
Portland, battle off, 465. 

D. of, prime minister, 588, 613. 

Portobello, 518. 
Port Arthur, 733. 
Port Philip, 723, 724. 
Portsmouth, 103, 107, 438. 

(New Hampshire), Treaty of, 733. 

Portugal, 392, 424, 477-478,513, 524,615, 

620, 644, 649, 655. 
Porto Novo, battle of, 585. 
Poynings, Sir Edward, 316. 
Poynings' Law, 316, 585, 587. 
Prcemunire, statute of. 223, 338. 
Pragmatic Sanction, the, 554. 
Prague, university of, 267. 
Prasutagus, K. of the Iceni, 8. 
/^?-ayer-boofc, -of Edward vi., the first, 355. 

the second, 358. 

of Elizabeth, 371. 

of James i., 426. 

of Charles ii., 474. 

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the, 705. 
Presbyterian! sm, 372, 376, 453, 457, 464, 

522-523. See also Church, the Scotch. 
Presbyterians, the, 459, 461, 465, 46-8, 474, 

475, 498, 603, 632, 676, 700. 
Pressburg, the peace of, 612. 
Preston, battle of (1648), 461. 

battle of (1715), 541. 

Preston Pans, battle of, 556. 
Pretoria. 727. 
Pride, colonel, 461. 



INDEX 



789 



Prince Consort, the, 658, 673. See also 

Albert, prince. 
Prince Edward's Island, 723. 
Principality, the, of Wales, 166, 181, 286, 

350. See also Wales. 
Printing, the invention of, 305-306. 
Privy Council, the, 241, 410, 482, 510. 
Protectionists, the, 664. 
Protestants, 332. 

the Irish, 602, 604-606, 676, 743. 

Proven5aIs, the, 162-163. 
Provence, 169. 

Rene, count of, 277. 

Provisions, papal, 163. 

Provisors, statute of, 223. 

Prussia, 512, 520, 555, 565, 566, 568, 573, 

576, 591, 596-598, 614, 622, 625, 644, 657, 

660, 672, 678, 752. 
Prynne, William, puritan, 442. 
Public Schools Act, the, 707. 
Public Worship Regulatioa Act of 1874, 

699. 
Pulteney, orator, 548. 
Punjiib, the, 710, 713. 
Purcell, Henry, musician, 530. 
Puritans, the, 357, 373, 405, 424, 426, 441, 

465, 466, 468, 474, 634. 
Pusey, Edward Bouverie, High Church 

leader. 698, 699. 
Pym, John, politician, 445-449, 
Pyrenees, the, 115, 126. 
Pytheas, the voyage of, 5. 



Quadruple Alliance, the, of 1718. ..543. 

of 1840. ..660. 

Quakers, the, 468, 479. 
Quarter Sessions, 411, 696. 
Quatre Bras, 622. 
Quebec, 568, 569, 723. 
Queen's Colleges, Ireland, 661. 

County, 401. 

Queensland, 724. 
Quia Emptores statute, 185. 
Quo warranto, writs of, 183. 
Quiberon Bay, battle of, 568. 
expedition to, 598. 



Eadcot Bridge, battle of, 233. 

Radicals, the, 654, 655, 664, 671, 674, 685. 

Raglan, Lord, 669. 

R^putana, 710. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 401,405, 423, 426, 431. 

Ralph, E. of Norfolk, 87-88. 

Ramillies, battle of, 514. 

Rand, the, 725. 

Randolph, E. of Chester, 114. 

Ranjit Singh, monarch of the Punjab, 710, 

711, 713. 
Ranulf Flambard, 96, 102, 103, 107, 153. 

Glanville, 134. 

Ravenspur, 236, 289, 

Raynham, 631. 

Reading, Abbey of, Henry i. buried there, 

108. 
Redesdale, Robin of, 289. 
Ro.dmond, John, Irish leader, 688, 75Ti 763. 
Red Sea, the, 682, 
Itedwald, K, of East Anglia, 28, 30. 



Reflections on the French Revolution, 

Burke's, 596. 
Reformation, the, 332-333, 338-349, 370-378 

408. 

in Scotland, 375-377. 

Reform Act, the first, 653. 

the second, 675. 

the third, 684. 

of 1918, 764. 

Regale, the, 97, 

Reginald, sub-prior ofChristchurch, Canter- 
bury, 141. 
Reign of Terror, the, 595. 
Reims, 273, 387, 750, 
Renascence, the, 307, 329, 408, 414. 
Rene of Anjou, Count of Provence, 277. 
Rescissory Act, the (Scotland), 376, 
Revenge, the, 400, 
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, painter, 636. 
Rhine, the river, 513, 596, 625, 763. 

confederation of the, 612. 

Rhodes, Cecil, 725, 

Rhodesia, 725. 

Rhode Island, 424. 

Rhiwallon, Welsh prince, 65. 

Ribblesdale, 287. 

Riccio, David, secretary of Mary, queen of 

Scots, 381. 
Rich, Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury, 

161, 164. 
Richard r.. King, 127, 129, 131-136. 

ir., 228-237. 

III., 291, 293-298. 

E, of Cornwall, K, of the Romans, 

166, 167, 169, 172. 
D. of York, son of Richard, E. of 

Cambridge, 279-283, 

son of Edward rv., 295-296. 

Richardson, Samuel, novelist, 638. 

Eichborough, 14. 

Richelieu, 440, 

Ridley, Nicholas, bishop of London ,357, 364. 

Ridolfi, Italian banker and conspirator, 385. 

Riga, 753, 

Riot Act, the, 539. 

Ripon, 33. 

• the treaty of, 445. 

Ripperda, Spanish minister, 551, 
Ritchie, chancellor of the exchequer, 734. 
Fivers E., Anthony Woodville, 288, 295-296. 
Robert Fitzhamon, lord of Glamorgan and 

Gloucester, 106. 

of Belleme, 103, 104. 

E, of Gloucester, 106, 112, 113, 

• of Jumieges, archbishop of Canterbury, 

63, 64, 68. 

D. of Normandy, 88, 93-95, 100-104, 

Roberts, Lord, general, 716. 727, 729, 744. 
Robinson Crusoe, Defoe's, 637. 
Robinson, Sir Thomas, diplomatist, 560, 
Rochdale, 662. 

Roche au Moine, la, siege of, 14-1, 145. 
Roche Derien, la, battle of, 216. 
Rochelle, la, 437, 438. 
Rochester, 31, 95 ; castle of, 152. 

Robert Ker, E. of, 509. 

Rockingham, Council of, 98. 

marquis of, prime minister, 575, 578, 

586, 587. 
Rodney, admiral, 684. 



790 



INDEX 



Eoebuck, John, discoveries of, 627. 
Roger, E. of Hereford, 87-88. 

bishop of Salisbury, 107, 111, 112. 

archbishop of York, 120. 

Rogers, John, Mariau martyr, 364. 

Rohilkhand. 710. 

Romans, the, 6, 7-12, 14. 

Roman Catholics, the, 426, 427, 441, 450, 

485, 492-494, 497, 602, 603, 606-609, 634, 

700. 
Romantic revival, the, 638-639, 706. 
Rome, 29, 98, 99, 119, 143, 163-164, 228, 

327, 339, 678. Se& also Popes. 
Roncesvalles, pass of, 221. 
Rooke, admiral, 515. 
Root and Branch Bill, the, 447. 
Rosebery. Lord, politician, 690, 691. 
Roses, Wars of the, 281-297. 
Rossetti, D. G., painter and poet, 705-706. 
Rouen, 93, 134, 135, 139, 267, 275. 
Roumania. See, Rumania. 
Roumelia, Eastern. See Rmnelia. 
Roundheads, the, 450. 
Roundway Down, battle of, 451. 
Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 694, 636. 
Royal Society, foundation of the, 529. 
Rubens, Peter Paul, painter, 530. 
Rufus's Stone, 101, 681. 
Rumania, 669, 680, 681, 746, 752, 753, 759. 
Rumelia, Eastern, 681. 
Rump, the, 461-465, 471-472. 
Runcorn, 628. 
Runny mede, 144. 

Rupert, Prince, 450, 453, 458, 458, 478. 
Ruskin, John, art critic, 707. 
Russell, House of, 409. 

William, Lord, 488. 

admiral, 503, 505. 

Lord John, afterwards E, Russell, 644, 

653, 663, 665, 667, 668, 671, 674, 675. 
Russia, 393, 565, 573, 576, 600, 601, 612, 

614, 620, 644, 645, 649, 660, 668-671, 680, 

682, 688, 691, 693, 694, 712, 732-734, 744, 

746, 747, 748, 752, 753, 754, 756, 759. 
Rutland, the earl of, 283. 
Rutupiae (Richborough), 14. 
Ruyter, Dutch admiral, 478. 
Rye House Plot, the, 488. 
Ryswick, peace of, 503. 



Sacheverell, Dk., 517, 
Sadler, Michael, 703. 
Saint- Arnaud, marshal, 669. 

■ Mihiel, 762. 

- — - Pol, 265. 

Quentin, battle of, 757, 759, 762. 

. , 366. 

St. Albans, 12, 231, 232. 

abbey of, 37, 250. 

• battles of, 281, 283. 

St. Andrews, university of, 307. 

St. Asaph, foundation of the see of, 28. 

St. David's, foundation of the see of, 28, 

93 ; William i. at, 93. 
St. Giles', church of, Edinburgh, 306, 443. 

Fields, London, 263. 

St. Helena, 424, 623, 720. 

St. John, Henry, 517-521. See. Boliug- 

broke. 



St. John, island of, 565. See, Prince Edward** 
Island. 

the knights of, 599, 602. 

St. Lawrence, the river, 565, 566, 568. 

St. Paul's, London, 529 ; school of, 330. 

St. Peter's Field, Manchester, 625. 

St. Stephen's, at Caen, monastery of, 90, 93. 

Walbrook, church of, 52d. 

Saintes, 165. 

Saladin, Sultan, 131. 

Salmanaca, 617 ; battle of, 620. 

Salisbury, 90, 297 ; cathedral of, 245, 636. 

Richard Neville, E. of, 281-283 . 

Margaret, countess of, 346. 

Robert Cecil, E. of. See Cecil Robert. 

Robert Cecil, mai'quis of, prime min- 
ister, 675, 681, 684, 685, 686, 688, 690, 730, 

Salonica, 746, 754. 

Sanchia of Provence, wife of Richard of 
Cornwall, 166, 

Sancroft, William, archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 489, 494, 498. 

Sandal, castle of, 283, 

San Domingo, 720. 

Sandwich, 160. 

San Stefano, treaty of, 681. 

Santa Cruz, battle of, 649. 

Saratoga, the surrender at, 582. 

Sardinia, 544, 554, 559, 672. 

Sat'i, Hindu custom, 711. 

Savoy, 512, 513, 518, 520, 596. 

Bona of, 288. 

Palace, the, 231 ; conference at, 474. 

Savoyards, the, 162-163. 

Sawtre, William, Lollard martyr, 256, 

Saxons, the, 14-16, 18, 19. 

Saxon Shore, Count of the, 14. 

Saxony, 554. 

the house of, 728. 

Saxton, 287. 

Scapula, Ostorius, Roman general, 8. 

Scarborough Castle, siege of, 199. 

Schism of the Papacy, the Great, 228-229, 
266, 267, 

Schleswig, 672. 

Schomberg, general, 499. 

Schwarz, Martin, soldier, 310. 

Scone, 192, 196, 209. 

Scotland, 22, 24, 54, 93, 99, 106, 124-125, 
188, 195-196, 200-201, 208-210, 283, 287, 
306-307, 377, 421, 443, 452, 463-465, 476, 
498, 500-502, 506, 522-523, 539-541, 634, 
735 

Scots, the, 14, 15, 22, 51, 186, 287, 452, 453, 
459, 460, 461. 

Scottish Church, the, 12, 29, 32, 33, 375- 
376, 634, 661, 700. 

Scottish Prayer-book, the, 443. 

Scottish Succession, claimants to the, 188. 

Scott, Sir Walter, novelist, 638, 706. 

Scrope, archbishop of York, 259. 

Sebastopol, 669. 

siege of, 670-671. 

Second Coalition, war of the, 600. 

Secretaries of State, the, 409, 695. 

Sectaries, the, 374. 

Security, the Act of (Scotland), 522. 

Sedan, 763. 

Sedgmoor, battle of, 490. 

Segrave, Stephen, justiciar, 162. 



INDEX 



791 



Segoatium. Set Oaraarvoo, It. 

Seine, the river, 214, 264. 

Selborne, Lord Chancellor, 678. 

Self-Denyiug Ordinance, the, 468. 

Seminary priests, the, 387. 

Senegal, 587. 

Seus6e river, the, 760. 

Separatists, the, 374. 

Sepoys, 563, 714. 

Septennial Act, the, 541. 

Serajevo, 747. 

Serbia, 746, 747, 752, 753, 754. 

Serbians, the, 680, 746, 747, 752, 753, 761. 

Serbs. Su Serbians. 

Seringapatam, 600. 

Settlement. Act of, of 1661 (Ireland), 477, 

499. 

of 1662, against vagrancy, 525. 

of 1701, 509. 

Seven United Provinces, the, 386, 399, 597. 

Set also Holland. 
Seven Years' War, the, 561, 566-572. 
Severn, the river, 27, 36, 174, 297, 628. 
Severus, Septimus, Emperor, 10. 
Seville, the peace of, 551. 
Seymour, Jane, qneen of Henry viir., 345, 

346. 

Thomas, Lord Seymour of Sudeley, 356. 

Edward. See Hertford and Somerset. 

Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, E. of, 

482-484, 486-488. 

Lord, philanthropist, 703. 

Shakespeare, William, dramatist, 417, 530. 
Shannon, the river, 500. 

the, British man-of-war, 621. 

Sharp, James, archbishop of St. Andrews, 

476, 487. 
Shaw, Doctor, 296. 
ShetBeld, 630, G52, 653. 
Sbelburne, E. uf, prime minister, 586, 587, 

588. 
Sheldon, Gilbert, archbishop of Canterbury, 

474. 
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, poet, 539. 
Supherd's Calendar, Spenser's, 416. 
Sher Ali, amir of Afghanistan, 716. 
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, politician and 

dramatist, 591, 636. 
Sheriff, office of, 78, 148. 
SberiEfmuir, battle of, 541. 
Shetland, Norse settlers in, 42, 
Ship Money, 440, 441, 445, 447. 
Shipton Moor, battle of, 259. 
Shire Moot, the, 77, 147, 
Shires, the, 77. 

Shirley, James, dramatist, 531. 
Shoreditch, theatre at, 416. 
Shrewsbury, 87. 103, 104, 181. 

palatine earldom of, 87, 104. 

treaty of, 176. 

battle of, 258. 

John Talbot, E. of, 278. 

D. of, 521. 

Shuji, Shrfh, 712. 

Sicily, 129, 167-169, 277, 319, 518, 543, 544, 

552. 
Sidmoath, Lord, 612. See also Addington. 
^dney. Sir Philip, 392, 416. 

Sir Henry, 402. 

Algernon, 488. 



280, 



See 



Sigismund, the Emperor, 266. 
Sikhs, the, 710, 711. 713, 71&. 
Silesia, 554, 565, 559. 
Silures, tribe of the, 8. 
Simon of Sudbury, archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 231. 
Simony, 91. 
Sind, conquest of, 712. 
Sindhia, Marithi prince, 716. 
Sinn Fein, 757, 76cJ. 
Sinope, 669. 

Siri5j-ud-Dauli, nawib of Bengal, 664. 
Siward, E, of Northumbria, 62, 64, 65, 
Six Acts, the, of 1819.. 625. 
Six Articles, the, 346. 
Slaves, emancipation of, 654. 
Slavs, the, 680, 681, 746, 747, 762. 
Sluys, battle of, 212. 
Smith, W, H., leader of the House of Cobv- 

mons in 1886. .686. 
Smithfield, 231. 
Smollett, Tobias, novelist, 638. 
Smuts, General, 755. 
Snowdon, 100, 106, 124, 179. 
Solemn League and Covenant, the, 452. 
Solway, the river, Gaelic element in lands 

around, 3. 
Solway Moss, battle of, 348, 353. 
Somers, Lord, chancellor, 505, 517. 
Somerset, John Beaufort, E, of, 260. 

D. of, 298. 

Edmund Beaufort, D. of, 277, 

281 

Edward Beaufort, D. of, 291. 

Edward Seymour. D. of. 352-358. 

also Seymour and Hertford, 

Robert Ker, E. of, 429. See alsoKer. 

Somerset, the countess of, 429. 

Charles Seymour, D. of, 521. 

Somme, the river. 214, 264, 265, 749 ; battle 

of the, 762. 758, 
Sonnets, 416. 

Sophia, electress of Hanover, 509, 520. 
Soult, general, 617. 618, 621. 
South Africa Act, 730. 
South African Republic, the, 724. See also 

Transvaal, the. 
Southampton, 264. 
South Australia, colony of, 724. 

Sea Bubble, the, 544-545. 

Sea Company, the, 544. 

Southwark, 362, 417, 676, 652. 

Spain, 313, 320, 366, 386, 390, 392, 394-400, 

430-433, 436, 440, 469, 502, 507, 512, 615. 

516, 518, 524, 543, 551, 552, 654, 572, 587, 

598, 602, 611, 614, 615, 617, 618-620. 644, 

645. 
Spanish Succession, the (1700), 607. 

War of the, 512-516. 518-520. 

Spectator, the, 533. 

Spenser, Edmund, poet, 403, 416. 

Spice Islands, the, 424. 

Spithead, mutiny at, 599. 

Spurs, battle of the, 321. 

Staffords, the, 309. See Buckingham, 

Stamford, 50, 289. 

Stamford Bridge, battle of, 68, 69. 

Stamp Act. the, 574, 578. 

Standard, battle of the, 112, 

Stanhope, general, 515, 542-545. 



792 



INDEX 



Stanley, Thomas, E; of Derby, 298, 299, 

311. 

William, 298, 299, 311. 

Lord, 664, 667. See. also Derby. 

Star Chamber, the, 313, 410, 442, 446. 
States General, of France, the, 494. 
Steele, Eichard, essayist, j'iSS, 637. 
Stephen of Blois, K. of England, 111-115. 
Stephenson, George, railway of, 702. 

Robert (eon), 702. 

Sterne, Lawrence, novelist, 638. 
Stevenson, Robert Louis, novelist, 706. 
Stewart, the house of, 306-307, 420-535, 

540, 556. 
Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, 64, 68, 

90. 
Stirling, 195, 200. 201. 
Stirling Bridge, battle of, 194. 
Stockton and Darlington Railway, the, 702. 
Stoke, battle of, 310. 

Stonehenge, megalithlc monuments at, 3. 
Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, E. of, 445- 

446. See also Wentworth. 
Stratford, John, archbishop of Canterbury, 

213. 
Stratford -on- A von, 417. 
Strathclyde, 21-23, 186. 
Stratton, battle of, 451. 
Strongbow, lord of .Chepstow and earl of 

Pembroke, 125, 159. 
Strikes, 703-704, 742. 

Colliers' (1912), 742 

Submarine, the, 765-756, 758-759. 
Succession, the Act of (1534), 340. 

the Austrian, 554-555. 

the Polish, 652. 

the SpaniBh, 507, 512-520. 

Sudan, the, 683, 692-693. 
Suez Canal, the, 681, 715. 
Suffolk, 19, 77. 

Michael de la Pole, "E. of, 233-234. 

William de la Pole, E. of, 277-279. 

Charles Brandon, D. of, 324, 360. 

Mary, Duchess of. See Mary. 

Suffrage, the, 653, 675, 684, 743, 762. 

Women's, 743, 764. 

Suffren, the bailli de, French admiral, 584, 

585. 
Sultan of Turkey, 745. 761. 
Sunderland, Robert Spencer, E. of, states- 
man, 492, 506, 516. 

(son of the above), 516, 542, 545. 

Supremacy Act of (1634), 338, 361. 

(1559), 371. 

Surat, 425, 

Surrey, 18, 77. 

Thomas Howard, E. of, 318, 322, 323, 

336. See also Norfolk. 
E. of, son of above, 350, 385. See also 

Norfolk. 

Henry Howard, E. of, poet, 415. 

Suspensory Act, the, 744. 

Sussex, 18, 27, 28, 33, 77, 279, 362, 630. 

E. of, 384, 401. 

Sutherland, Norse settlers in, 42. 

Swan River, the, settlement of, 723, 724. 

Sweden, 482, 601, 614, 

Swegen, king of the Danes, his conquest of 

England, 58. 
Swift, Jonathan, satirist, 637. 



Swinburne, .Algevnon Charles, po«t, 706. 

Switzerland, 607, 750. 

SwjTiford, Catharine, wife of John of 

Gaunt, 260. 
Sydney, town of, 720, 723. 
Syria, 100, 660, 761. 



Tacitus, his Life of Agricola, 9. 

Tadcaster, 287. 

Tagus, the river, 620. 

Taillebourg, battle of, 165. 

Talavera, battle of, 618. 

Talbot, John, E. of Shrewsbury, 278. 

Tallard, marshal, 513, 514. 

Tamburlaine the Great, Marlowe's, 417. 

Tamworth, royal city of the Mercians, 75. 

Tangier, 478, 

Tara, meeting at, 66. 

Tariff reform, 734, 736, 738. 

Tasmania, 723, 724. 

Tatler, the, 633. 

Tattershall, 303. 

Taunton, 312. 

Taylor, Jeremy, theologian, 532. 

Tees, the river, 84. 

Tel-el-Kebir, battle of, 683. 

Tennyson, Alfred, poet, 706. 

Ternoise, the river, 265. 

Territorials, the, 753. 

Test Act, the, 484, 492, 543, 547, 648, 699. 

Tewkesbury, battle of, 291. 

Thackeray, W. M., novelist, 706. 

Thagi, Hindu custom, 711. 

Thames, the river, 64, 71, 83, 144, 233, 628. 

Theatres, 416-417, 530-531, 637. 

Theodore of Tarsus, archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 34. 

Th€rouanne, capture of, 321. 

Thirty-nine Articles, the, 359, 871. 

Thirty Years' War, the, 431-433, 436-437, 
440. 

Thistlewood. Arthur, plot formed by, 643. 

Thomson, James, poet, 550, 638. 

Thurlow, Lord Chancellor, 589. 

Thurstan, archbishop of York, 112. 

Till, the river, 322. 

Tillotson, archbishop of Canterbury, 498. 

Tilsit, treaty of, 614. 

Times, the (newspaper), 687. 

Tinchebray, battle of, 104. 

Tipii, sultan of Mysore, 599, 600. 

Tithe War, the, 654. 

Titus Livius, Italian writer, 304. 

Tobago, 587, 720. 

Tolbooth, the, 551, 

Toleration Act, the, 1689... 497. 

Tone, Theobald Wolfe, Irish rebel, 603-604. 

Tottel's Miscellany, 415. 

Torbay, 495. 

Tories, 486, 488, 495, 505, 509, 510, 516- 
520, 549-550, 613, 655, 662. 

Torres Vedras, the lines of, 620. 

Torrigiano, Italian sculptor, 414. 

Tostig, E. of Northumbria, 62, 65, 66, 68. 

Toulon, expedition to, 698 ; fleet of, 611. 

Toulouse, 165. 

count of, 127, 129. 

battle of. 621. 

Touraine, 126. 



INDEX 



793 



Tourelles, the, attack on, 273. 
Tonrnai. capture of, 321. 
Toumameuts, 248. 
Tonxs, 108. 

the truce of, 277. 

Tower of London, the, 103, 162, 289, 296, 

312. 318. 
Townshend. viscount, prime minister, B42. 

545, 548. 631. 

Charles, 576, 578, 580. 

Towton, battle of, 287. 

Tractartan Movement, the, 698. 

Trades Unions, 703. 

Trafalgar, battle of, 611. 

Tramecourt, 265. 

Transvaal, the, 632, 724-726, 729, 730. 

Trastamara, Henry of. King of Castile, 219, 

221. 
Treason Act, the, 340. 
Treasurer, the, 147. 
Tribuchet, the, 248. 
Trent, 752„ 

the council of, 378. 

the river, 27, 628. 

Trevithick, Richard, steam locomotive of, 

V02. 
Triennial Act, the (,1641), 447, 474. 

(1694), 505, 64J . 

Trieste, 754. 

Trimmer, origin of the title, 487. 

Trinidad, 602, 720. 

Trlnovaul€B, the, 7. 

Triple Alliance, the. of 1668... 489. 

of 1716.. .542-543. 

of Germany, Austria and Italy, 

678, 688, 745, 754. 
Tripoli, 746. 

Tromp, Dutch admiral, 465. 
Troyes, treaty oi; 267-268. 
Tsushima, battle of. 733. 
Tudor, house of, 298, 308-419. 

Edmund, E. of Richmond, 298. 

Henry, E. of Richmond, 298-299. See 

also Henry vii. 

Owen, 298. 

Jasper, E. of Pembroke, 298, 309. 

TuUibardine, marquis of, 556. 

Tunbridge Wells, 527. 

Tuunage and poundage, 438, 439, 440, 447. 

Tunis, Crusade of Louis ix. diverted to, 177. 

Turin, battle of, 515. 

Turkey, 591, 600, 660, 668-680, 745, 746, 

747, 753, 754, 759, 761, 762. 
Turks, the, 100, 645, 646, 649, 691, 745, 746, 

747, 753, 754, 759, 761. 

the Young, 745. 

Turner, J. M. VV., painter, 705. 

Tumham Green, 4 jl. 

Tweed, the river, 322. 

Twizel Bridge, 322. 

Tyler, Wat, 231. 

Tyndall, William, reformer, 333, 345. 

Tyrconnell, the E. of, 493, 498. 

Tyrone, E. of, 402, 404, 422. 



Ulster, 279, 402, 404, 422, 477, 499, 603, 

743, 744. 
Uniformity, Act of (1549), 355. 



Uniformity, Act of (1552), SS."*. 

(1559), 371. 

(1662), 475. 

Union, Act of (1707), Joining English and 

Scottish Parliaments, 623. 
(1800), joining the Irish and 

English Parliaments, 605. 
Union of Canada, 723. 

Australia, 724. 

South Africa, 730. 

Union Jack, the, 523. 
Unionists, 685, 741, 742. 763- 
Unitarians, the, 497, 632. 
United Empire loyalists, 719. 

Free Church, of Scotland, 701. 

Irishmen, society of the, 603. 

Presbyterians, of Scotland, 700. 

Provinces, the, 38G, 399, 597. See 

also Holland and Seven United Provinces. 
States of America, the, 581, 587, 621, 

636, 660, 672, 678, 691, 701, 733, 755, 759- 

763. 
Universities, the, 155, 244, 245, 301, 528, 

708, 737. 
Urban ii., pope, 98, 100. 

VI., 228-229. 

Urbicus, Lollius, governor of Britain, 10. 

Usk, the river, 65. 

Utopia, More's, 330, 415. 

Utrecht, the union of, 386. 

treaty of, 518-520, 543, 551, 552. 

Valence, Aymer of, B. of Winchester. 

165, 174. 

E. of Pembroke, 170, 202. 

William of, 165, 168, 170. 

Valentia, 10. 

Valentine, 439. 

Vallee aux Clercs, 215. 

Valmj', the cannonade of, 596. 

Valois, house of, 400. 

Van Dyck, Antony, painter, 527, 530. 

Venables, admiral, 469. 

Varna, 669. 

Venetia, 758. 

Venetians, the, 302. 

Venezuela, 691, 732. 

Venice, 310, 320, 623. 

Venizelos, Greek minister, 746, 754, 759. 

Vera Cruz, 394. 

Verdun, 752, 758. 

, battle of, 752. 

Vera, Robert de, E. of Oxford, 232. 

Verneuil, battle of, 271. 

"N'ersailles, 678 ; treaty of, 587. 

^^eruIamism, 8, 11, 12. See St. Alb'ans. 

Vesle, the, 750. 

Veto Act, the, 741-742. 

resolutions, the, 738, 739. 

Victor Amadeua, D. of Savoy, K. , first of 

Sicily, then of Sardinia. 512, 518, 544. 
Victor Emanuel, K. of Italy, 672, 678. 
Victoria, colony of, 724. 
Victoria, queen, 657-727. 
Vienna, 513. 

treaties of, 551, 552. 

congress of, 622-625. 

Vienne, the dauphin of, 267. 

Vigo, 397. 

Villeins, the, 149, 230, 358. 



794 



INDEX 



Villeneuve, admiral, 611, 

Vimiero, battle of, 616. 

Vimy Kjdge, 758. 

Vincennes, 268. 

Vinegar Hill, battle of, 604. 

Vinliind, Norse settlement in America, 42. 

Virginia, 401, 423, 565. 

Viroconium (Wroxeter) Koman garrison 

at, 8, 11. 
Vitoria, battle of, 621. 
Voltaire, 594. 
Voluntary schools, 730. 
Volunteers, the Irish (1782), 586. 

Irish National (1914), 743. 

Ulster (1914), 743. 

British (18ii4), 610, (1859), 697. 

Vortigern, British king, 18. 

Wadicodrt, 214. 
Wagram, battle of, 618. 
Wakefield, battle of, 283. 

town of, 304. 

Walcheren, expedition to, 618. 

Wales. 3. 14, 22, 24, 28, 99, 103, 106, ll7, 

124-125, 159, 166, 167, 170, 176, 179-182, 

240, 257, 283, 297, 299, 315, 350, 357, 

404, 409, 450, 629, 630, 633, 742, 743. 

(See also Principality, the. 

Church in, 742, 744. 

Council of, the, 350, 410. 

Statute of, 181-182. 

Wallace, William, Scottish patriot, 194, 

195-196. 
Wallachia, 668, 669, 753. 
Waller, Sir William, parliamentary general, 

451, 458. 
Wallingford, 71. 

treaty of, 115, 

Walpok, Robert, Sir, 517, 542, 545-653. See 

also Oxford, E. ot. 
Walsingham, Sir Francis, 370, 388, 389. 
Walter of Goutances, archbishop of E,ouen, 

134. 
Waltheof, E. of Huntingdon, 84, 85, 87 ; 

E. of Northumberland, 88. 
Walworth, Sir William, 231. 
Wandewash, battle of, 564. 
Warbeck, Perkm, impostor, 311-312. 
Warenne, E. , 183, 194. 
Warrington, 461. 
Warwick, E. of, 199. 

Thomas Beauchamp, E. of, 234, 235. 

Richard Neville, E. of, 282, 291. 

Edward, E. of, 297, 309, 312. 

John Dudley, E. of, 354, 357. See 

also Northumberland. 
Washington (city), 759. 

George, 565, 581, 584. 

Waterloo, battle of, 622-623. 

Watling Street, the, 11. 

Watson, instigator of the Bye Plot, 426. 

Watt, James, discoveries of, 627. 

Wavre, 623. 

Webster, John, dramatist, 530. 

Wedgewood, Josiah, his potteries, 627. 

Wedmore, the treaty of, 45. 

Welles, Sir Robert, 289. 

Wellesley, Sir Arthur, 609, 617, 618-623, 

647-649. See Wellington, D. of. 
marquis, 600, 609, 644, 709, 710. 



Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, D. o^ €18, 

623, 647-649, 653. 
Wells, 184. 
Welsh, the, 21, 28, 31, 36, 40, 51, 65, 93, 

99, 190, 257-259, 262, 286. 
Wentworth, Sir Thomas, 437-438, 442-445. 

See also Strafford. 
Wesley, John and Charles, methodists, 632- 

633. 
Wessex, 18, 27, 33, 38, 39, 43-45, 47, 51, 59, 

60, 74, 
Western Australia, colony of, 724. 
West Indies, the, 397, 423, 424, 611, 720, 

721. 
Westminster, 66, 118, 168, 203, 345, 446, 

449,461, 652, 742. 
Abbey, 66, 72, 76, 94, 153, 177, 192- 

245, 262, 296, 303, 305, 366, 414. 

Assembly of Divines at, 459-460. 

Statutes of (Edward i.), 183, 184, 185. 

Westmorland, earldom of, 281, 286. 

Charles Neville, E. of, 384. 

Westphalia, treaty of, 469. 

kingdom of, 61i. 

West Saxons, shiies of the, 77. 

Wettin, house of, 728. 

Wexford, capture of, 463, 604. 

Whigs, the, 486, 495, 505, 509, 510, 516-518, 

532-572, 613, 655, 660, 662, 667, 671. 
Whitby, Synod of, 33. 
Wbitefield, George, methodist, 632-633. 
Whitehall, palace of, 461. 
White Sea, the, 393. 
Whitgift, John, archbishop of Canterbury, 

374, 405. 
Wicklow, 680, 

Wight, Isle of, Jutish settlement in, 18. 
Wilberforce, William, 634, 635. 
Wilfrid, St., of Ripon, 33. 
Wilkes, John, reformer, 574, 576. 
Willoughby, explorer, 393. 
William i., the Conqueror, 63, 64, 67-72, 

82-93, 

II. Rufus, 94-101, 

III. of Orange, 494, 495, 496-510. 

IV,, 642, 650-658, 

D, of Aquitaine, 101. 

— r- son of Robert of Normandy, 107. 

son of Henry i., 107, 108. 

■ of Corbeil, archbishop of Canterbury, 

111. 

the Lion, K. of Scots, 125, 132, 

I,, prince of Orange, 386, 392. 

HI., prince of Orange, 483, 484. See 

also William iv., K, of England. 

I, of Prussia, German Emperor, 672, 

678, 688. 

II,, German Emperor, 688, 692, 744, 

745, 747, 754, 762, 763. 

— — D. of Clarence. See William iv,, K, 
of England. 

Wilmington, Lord, 553. 

AVilson, Woodrow, President of the United 
States, 759-763, 

Wimbledon, Edward Cecil, Lord, 436, 

Winceby, battle of, 452, 

Winchelsea, Robert, archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 192, 193, 195, 201, 

Winchester, royal city of Wessex, 75. 

Winchester, statute of, 184. 



INDEX 



795 



Winchester, cathedral of, 247. 

■ school at, 301. 

Windsor, 257. 

House of. T40, 728-765. 

Winwood, battle of, 32. 

Witenagemot, the, 66, 79, 147. 

Wittenberg, in Saxony, 332. 

Wolfe, general, 568-569. 

Wolseley, general, 683. 

Wolsey, Tbomas, cardinal and archbishop 
of York, 318-321, 326-336. 

Women, Suffrage for, 742, 764. 

Woodstock, Thomas of. Sea Gloucester. 

, assize of, 124, 160. 

Woodville, Elizabeth, queen of Edward iv., 
288, 295-296. 

family of, 295, 296. 

Worcester, battle of, 465. 

Worde, Wynkyn de, printer, 306. 

Wordsworth, William, poet, 638. 

Worms, concordat of, 105, 108. 

Worsley, 628. 

Wren, Sir Christopher, architect, 529. 

Wroxeter. Ste Viroconium. 

Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 362. 

(son of the above), poet, 

415. 

— — James, architect, 636. 

Wycliffe, John, reformer, 224, 226-229, 
252. 

Wykeham, William of, bishop of Win- 
chester, 226, 234, 247, 301. 

Wymondham, 356. 



Yeomanry, cavalry, 761. 
Yeomen, 412, 631, 

of the guard, 411. 

York, city of. 11, 68, 75, 150, 287, 304, 344, 

410. /Stee also Eburacum. 
archbishops of, 30, 120, 319. See also 

Paulinus, Egbert, Thurstan, Roger, Grey 

Walter, Scrope, Neville George, and 

Wolsey Thomas. 

parliament of, 202. 

minster, 247. 

great council at, 445, 

siege of, 453. 

Jiouse of, 279-281, 284-299. 

Richard, D. of, 279-283. 

Edward, D. of, 283. See Edward iv. 

James, D. of, 478-484. ^ee James ii. 

Richard, I), of, 295-296, 311, See also 

Richard iii. 

D, of, and Cardinal, 558. 

Yorkshire, 77, 84, 90, 628, 652. 

Yorktown, 584. 

Ypres, 211, 750; second battle of, 750, 752, 

758. 
Yser, the river, 750, 752, 758, 761. 

Zanzibar, 688, 
Zealand, 386. 

iSew, 724. 

Zeppelins, the, 756. 
Zulus, the, 725. 
Zutphen, battle of, 392. 
Zwingle, Ulrich, reformer, 333. 



THE END 



FEINTED IN GREAT EEITAIN Br WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, BECCLBS. 



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